The leader of Livre, Rui Tavares, addressed journalists on Friday during a campaign event in Lisbon. Notably, the party of Rui Tavares is part of the left-wing coalition (PS/Livre/BE/PAN) for the Lisbon municipality, led by the socialist Alexandra Leitão.
Speaking about the reform of Avenida de Ceuta, where he was located, Tavares criticized the choices of the current Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, while highlighting the goal of achieving “a more harmonious city.”
Regarding the plans approved by Moedas, the leader of Livre further noted it received “great praise” from councilwoman Filipa Roseta. “Who, incidentally, has now been replaced from the team because Carlos Moedas decided to throw everyone overboard and change the entire team. In which, incidentally, he is right only about one thing. What he forgot to train was the coach, who is responsible for how the team plays”, he remarked.
He criticized that nothing had been implemented from the Livre’s project on the renaturalization of Vale de Alcântara. “I am sure that with Alexandra Leitão as the Mayor of Lisbon and with the team led by her, this is something that cannot happen,” he emphasized.
Addressing what distinguishes the coalitions in the elections (Left and Right), Rui Tavares stressed that the only thing that changed in the city during Moedas’s first term was the installation of “monuments, monstrosities from JCDecaux all over the city with propaganda to the City Council, some of it misleading, for four years.”
“Sometimes we would walk around here and see permanent propaganda of Carlos Moedas to himself, as if the money he spent on TikTok and social networks wasn’t enough. This looked like Damascus during Bashar Al-Assad’s time. A poster of the regime’s power everywhere. We are proving to people that it is possible to turn this around”, he noted.
When questioned if the influence of Livre could help ‘break the tie’ in the results, which according to the latest Expresso/SIC poll indicates a technical tie between Alexandra Leitão and Carlos Moedas, Rui Tavares stated: “Every vote counts. Everyone who wants a city of progress, ecological, humanistic, that takes care of itself before thinking of doing ‘pretties’ for Tribeca, Web Summit […],” he asserted.
