“The past four years have been highly significant, particularly in the first half of the [PS Government’s] term, as a decisive advancement occurred in a vital process for the municipalities’ lives—long-demanded and impactful on the state’s functionality and organization—which was the decentralization process in three fundamental areas: health, social action, and education,” stated Luísa Salgueiro in an interview.
The socialist mayor, also presiding over the Matosinhos City Council in the Porto district, was elected in 2021 to lead the ANMP, becoming the first woman to hold this position.
She will now step down at the upcoming weekend’s electoral congress of the ANMP, following the PSD’s victory in the most city councils in the October local elections, which facilitated their resumption of the ANMP leadership from the PS, held since 2013.
The mayor noted that this initial phase of the decentralization process has yielded “great results” for the municipalities.
“I emphasize it is a phase because the process is not completed. Even this phase is not entirely stabilized because it involved defining the competencies to transfer and the involved resources, namely human, material, and financial,” she explained.
In her view, the major advantage of decentralization is that populations are much better served, as competencies are exercised locally rather than from Lisbon.
“A mayor, when responsible for managing activities in a school, knows the situation better and, ultimately, adds value,” she expressed.
Luísa Salgueiro stressed that the mayors and the ANMP never sought more competencies for gaining more power but to better serve the populations, as sometimes immediate responses are required, and they are delayed.
The mayor revealed that social action, initially perceived as the most challenging area to stabilize, produced the best outcomes.
“In social action, what was done, and had never been done before, was diagnosing the situation nationwide in two fundamental services: the Social Integration Income (RSI) and the Social Attendance and Follow-up Service,” she remarked.
“It was found that in some municipalities, one technician handled 1,000 cases while in others, only 30, indicating a national imbalance,” she emphasized.
With decentralization, it was established that in all municipalities, no technician will handle more than 200 RSI cases and more than 250 Social Attendance and Follow-up cases, explained the mayor.
“There is now a homogeneous response in the social area across the country,” she noted.
In education, Luísa Salgueiro highlighted the historic agreement reached with the Government for the requalification of 520 schools, amounting to 1.7 billion euros, all funded by the Central Administration.
“It will be the largest investment ever in the country’s school rehabilitation,” she pointed out.
However, the decentralization in Health was “far below expectations,” and is the most delayed, she regretted.
Luísa Salgueiro also mentioned the creation of the Local Power Observatory, a platform to gather all information from municipalities, which will be a “significant milestone” for them.
The structure, funded by the PRR, is currently being set up, with the digital process already awarded, which, according to the mayor, “is highly technological in information systems.”
The new ANMP president will be elected at the ANMP electoral congress, scheduled for December 13 and 14 in Viana do Castelo.
The mayor of Pombal, Pedro Pimpão, has expressed his availability for the role.
