“No, we in the PSD do not give instructions to our mayors. We in the PSD defend the autonomy of local power, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic, and we take it seriously. The ones who have to manage the municipalities are the mayors, not us. What we provide them are strategic guidelines, basic political directions,” stated Luís Montenegro.
Before heading to Espinho, where he resides and will congratulate the social-democrat Jorge Ratola who won the local council presidency with an absolute majority after a tumultuous campaign for the PSD and PS, Luís Montenegro, who followed the local election night in Porto, stopped in Vila Nova de Gaia to congratulate Luís Filipe Menezes on his return to a council he led for 16 years.
During a brief visit of less than 15 minutes, after an embrace right out of the car amidst shouts of “victory”, the PSD leader praised the historic mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia, who regains the municipality after 12 years of socialist leadership, albeit without an absolute majority.
“We have been friends for many, many years. We discussed and envisaged this possibility [of returning to a candidacy in Gaia] here in Francelos, without anyone knowing, away from the attention of both party leaders and the press, with a set of premises that later turned out to be true, but above all with a spirit of recognition for the work he already did in the 16 years,” Montenegro noted.
Reflecting on the past, he made a promise: “He did not come back to gaze at what he has already done. He came to do many new things.”
Referring to this election, in which PSD ran in coalition with CDS-PP and IL, Luís Montenegro stated that “the PSD is, indeed, today the largest Portuguese party,” something “indisputable” that makes it “the most Portuguese party of Portugal,” expressing he is “very pleased.”
“I can only be very pleased for having managed, all at once, to win two relative elections, win three regional elections, win the local elections and, for the first time in our history, to have municipal presidencies in every district of the country,” he summarized.
When asked about what might be lacking for PS to achieve similar victories, Montenegro said he is neither a political commentator nor analyst, and out of “democratic respect,” he would not answer the question, but he did suggest some reflection for the socialists.
“Indeed, something is wrong when one wants ultimately to deny a political reality that often surpasses some of the more closed, more dogmatic ideological barriers, but that is a matter for the Socialist Party to analyze. I already have much to concern myself with in managing the PSD; I am not going to now focus on the management of other parties. As a Portuguese person, as a citizen, I have my views, but I shall keep them to myself,” he said.
Returning to potential governance agreements, the social-democratic president reiterated that it is the mayors who have “the means to execute in their territories the boundaries of political orientation” that the PSD advocates for Portugal.
“Because the country will be all the more competitive and developed if, in the municipalities, there is the same capacity for transformation, reform, boldness, and ambition that we want to implement and are implementing in the Government (…). In those cases where it is locally necessary to bring positions closer together, to cultivate political dialogue, the mayors are accustomed to doing so,” he remarked.
