The Movimento pela Democracia Participativa / Movimento pela Democratização dos Partidos (MDP) has issued a complaint against the Lisbon City Council, accusing it of using the city’s MUPIs (Urban Furniture for Information) network during the electoral campaign period for legislative elections. This complaint was submitted on Monday to the National Elections Commission (CNE).
The MDP argues that, according to the law, institutional advertising promoted by public entities is prohibited during an election period unless it meets an urgent and serious public need. They claim that the content shared by the city council does not meet this criterion.
The organization criticized the use of MUPI with generic messages by the Lisbon City Council (CML), such as “Lisboa avança” (“Lisbon moves forward”), “mais qualidade de vida” (“better quality of life”), and “Mais Habitação” (“more housing”), arguing that these do not correspond to urgent public services and thus violate the duty of neutrality and impartiality required of public administration. According to the MDP, this practice could promote the city council’s image and potentially benefit certain candidates associated with the municipal executive.
The MDP’s complaint is based on an independent study conducted on the occupation of MUPIs in Lisbon, operated by JC Decaux and its subcontractor MOP, between March and April 2025.
The study revealed an intensive and disproportionate use of advertising supports by the CML, with a notable increase beginning on March 20, 2025. Out of 600 examined advertising spaces in areas such as Avenidas Novas, Alvalade, Areeiro, and Arroios, 237 displayed CML content, accounting for 39.5% of the total.
This figure contrasts with the 3.7% observed in the years 2020-2021, as evidenced by historical data from Google Street View.
The group also noted instances of complete or shared advertising faces featuring commercial advertisements but always identified with CML, in the form of posters with generic and institutional messages, without any grave and urgent public necessity.
Additionally, there were observations of panels that were turned off or displayed neutral content until mid-April, which were suddenly activated with institutional content from the CML, in highly visible areas such as Avenida da Liberdade and Praça de Londres.
The complete data from the MDP’s observations are available at movimentodemocraciaparticipativa.org.
Lusa reached out to the Lisbon City Council to inquire about the reasons behind this complaint but has not yet received a response. Similarly, there has been no response from the CNE regarding the complaint.
Last year, following the analysis of complaints, the CNE ordered the removal of institutional advertising by the Lisbon City Council during the campaigns for the March legislative elections and the June European elections.
