“I want to thank the people of Sintra for their participation in the election and the vote of confidence they expressed in the coalition ‘Sempre com os Sintrenses’, a coalition composed of many independents who have accompanied me since 2013, but above all, formed by three parties, PSD, Iniciativa Liberal, and PAN, an original coalition, but one that allowed and will continue to allow the restitution of Sintra to its people,” stated Marco Almeida.
The former deputy mayor during the mandates of Fernando Seara (PSD), made his remarks in the historic center of Sintra, at a café where previously the PS monitored and celebrated the electoral night, adding that a “full stop” was put to “12 years of the Socialist Party.”
“I believe the coming years will be years of enhancing the municipality’s infrastructure, but mostly about residents regaining pride in living in this municipality and truly being Sintra citizens in all dimensions,” he highlighted.
The winning candidate, after having headed the independent list “Sintrenses com Marco Almeida” in 2013 against the PSD, and in 2017 leading a PSD/CDS-PP/PPM/MPT coalition, losing to Basílio Horta (PS), also expressed gratitude to Fernando Seara, beside him, who led the list for the Municipal Assembly and extended “a profound thanks” to Manuela Ferreira Leite.
His campaign’s current representative, he explained, believed in 2001 that “he could contribute to the management of the Sintra Municipal Council,” and speaking to the former social-democratic official, he reinforced, “Thank you very much, ‘sotora’, and I believe this is also your victory, the victory of resilience and persistence, as I always saw it.”
When questioned about not having more distinguished PSD figures by his side on this victorious night, Marco Almeida replied that he would later go to “celebrate in Terrugem,” and left a message for the current prime minister, for believing that “he could make a difference in the PSD’s electoral outcome as part of a party coalition.”
“I know he was often misunderstood, but I believe, Dr. Luís Montenegro, it was worth it, we returned leadership of Sintra to the PSD and a coalition of parties, [with] Iniciativa Liberal and PAN,” he noted, also referring to Inês de Sousa Real from PAN for betting on a “sui generis coalition” and the local IL structure.
Regarding the rest of the executive board, and without an absolute majority, Marco Almeida reiterated that he would review “the resumes of the elected council members” and that his “red line was with incompetence,” as he does not want “councillors without a resume,” but rather those “who have their own life.”
“I see that Chega and the PS elected councillors and therefore, they also have the endorsement of Sintra’s people in the result granted to them. I won’t distinguish by parties; I will distinguish by people and their competence,” he emphasized.
Regarding CDS-PP, which decided not to join the coalition after negotiations with IL, the night’s winner considered that “CDS disappeared from the map in Sintra, and there is one responsible, and the militants will certainly clarify this responsibility.”
At the time Marco Almeida claimed victory, nine out of the 15 parishes within the municipality had been counted.
Currently, the executive, presided over by Basílio Horta, who completed three terms and cannot run again, has five PS members, three PSD members, one CDS-PP, one CDU, and one independent (formerly Chega) member.
Other candidates for the Sintra Municipality included Ana Mendes Godinho (PS/Livre), Marco Almeida (PSD/IL/PAN), Pedro Ventura (CDU), Maurício Rodrigues (CDS-PP/PPM/ADN), Rita Matias (Chega), Tânia Russo (BE), and Júlio Ferreira (ND).
