“There are always concerns, which only show that we take all this with responsibility. But, I am also accompanied by a team of experienced people,” some “entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, others who are very used to working in public administration, also in municipal chambers, and therefore I am confident that each of us contributes with a distinct profile,” stated Rita Matias.
The Chega deputy, on the verge of turning 27, speaking to Lusa during a campaign event at the Bela Vista roundabout in Mem Martins, accompanied by the head of the list for the Municipal Assembly, Luís Fernandes, and the first candidate for the parish of Algueirão-Mem Martins, Paulo Coelho, added that she trusts the difference in experiences “will translate, above all, into a movement for change, which is what Sintra needs.”
If she does not win the elections, the deputy admitted that, not taking on roles, she will accumulate the parliament and the municipality, because when she runs “for a position it is to assume what” the voters, “and in this case the people of Sintra, understand has to be.”
“I will respect the electoral results, if it is not a victory scenario I will play a role of opposition, scrutiny, monitoring what will be the government action of the new executive, assuming the commitment to which I applied,” she stated.
Regarding the campaign, the good “adherence and a tremendous receptivity” did not surprise her, given the results of the legislative elections, where they got more votes in the municipality, but she was still impressed, “because people here in these lands also lost their shame, the fear” of supporting Chega.
“She was honking, but she was complaining,” commented a supporter of the far-right party, in the face of a persistent honk from a motorist stuck in the line of cars passing by the roundabout.
While the militants handed out pens, bags, ribbons, caps, or party ‘t-shirts’, the passing drivers were divided between those who accepted the gifts and those who ignored the offers with an obscene gesture, or who blew kisses to the candidate.
A taxi driver showed support with a clenched fist, and another who followed almost ran over a woman on the pedestrian crossing because he was distracted by the supporters, a delivery motorcyclist only smiled at the crowd at the exit of the roundabout to Alameda Afonso de Albuquerque.
But there were also those who shouted “go to work,” or the driver of an SUV who passed by honking continuously, pointing a stretched middle finger, provocations that led a supporter to advise: “Take her license plate.”
The candidate stated that the party wants to govern alone and is “trying to mobilize the vote” to have “a majority,” but conceded that she knows “that this may not happen,” as polls say “that the vote is very fragmented and that eventually some dialogue will be necessary.”
The deputy further explained that the proposal to offer a ticket for the return of immigrants to the country of origin “is not a desire to send people away who are not from here,” but “to understand that Sintra has been one of the municipalities where the arrival of people is felt” who “often come under false pretenses” and end up “in garages, where 20, 30 people live in spaces that are not prepared for housing” or in stores.
A measure she acknowledged is not under the municipality’s competence but said she hopes “the Government also moves in this direction,” and should she win the elections, she will “immediately request an external audit” to investigate the “skeletons in the closet” of the 12 years of the PS, but also of the PSD, to understand what lines they are sewn with.
Currently, the executive, presided over by Basílio Horta, who completed three terms and cannot run again, has five members from the PS, three from the PSD, one from the CDS-PP, one from the CDU, and one independent (ex-Chega).
Also running for the Sintra City Hall on Sunday are Ana Mendes Godinho (PS/Livre), Marco Almeida (PSD/IL/PAN), Pedro Ventura (CDU), Maurício Rodrigues (CDS-PP/PPM/ADN), Tânia Russo (BE), and Júlio Ferreira (ND).
