“Our priorities are the right ones: housing, health, public schools, culture and heritage, research and science, transport and mobility, quality of public spaces where citizenship and democracy are practiced,” stated José Luís Carneiro during the presentation session of the PS candidates for the 14 municipal councils in the Beja district.
In his address, the socialist leader acknowledged “there have been challenging winds circulating,” but without “credibility,” “prestige,” or “capacity to establish an alternative to the sole pillar of democratic local power, which is the PS.”
According to Carneiro, the PS “holds democratic local power as the most important guarantee and the most significant commitment to the country’s economic and social development.”
Thus, speaking directly to the candidates in the district, the PS Secretary-General pledged to “enhance Beja Airport as a strategic airport infrastructure for the entire region’s economy,” also serving a “complementary function to Humberto Delgado Airport [in Lisbon] and the future Alcochete Airport.”
The enhancement of road and rail infrastructures was another commitment made by José Luís Carneiro before the party candidates, “to ensure a more cohesive territory, capable of attracting investment, retaining people, and creating qualified employment.”
At the conclusion, the PS Secretary-General urged everyone to “engage specially” in direct contact “door to door, street by street, place by place, with the people,” to bring voters the “values, causes, and principles” of the party.
In the Beja district, the PS is re-nominating current mayors José Efigénio in Alvito, Paulo Arsénio in Beja, António José Brito in Castro Verde, Luís Pita Ameixa in Ferreira do Alentejo, Mário Tomé in Mértola, Álvaro Azedo in Moura, Hélder Guerreiro in Odemira, and Marcelo Guerreiro in Ourique.
In Aljustrel, the head of the list will be former deputy and current president of the socialist federation, Nelson Brito, who led this municipality from 2009 to 2021.
In Almodôvar, where President António Bota cannot seek re-election due to term limits, Ana Carmo, the current vice-president of the municipality, will be the candidate.
In the Beja district municipalities where it is in opposition, the PS has chosen Bela Filipe in Barrancos, Francisco Orelha in Cuba, Francisco Picareta in Serpa, and Ricardo Bonito in Vidigueira as candidates.
