“The concern was not, contrary to what one might think, the majority in the council. The concern was culture; culture is the cause. The rest will be collateral gains in governance, but culture is the cause,” Pedro Duarte stated to journalists today following the swearing-in ceremony of the municipal bodies.
After failing to secure an absolute majority in the October elections, winning six out of 13 mandates, Pedro Duarte (PDS/CDS-PP/IL), who today took office as president of the Porto City Council, decided to give the Culture portfolio to Jorge Sobrado. Sobrado, elected from the PS list, will now serve as an independent councilor, it was revealed today.
“This invitation was not just a personal invite; it was political in the sense that I could bring my ideas, my proposals, and the program that I also put to debate during the electoral campaign,” considered the PS-elected councilor, who will now be independent.
For Sobrado, who is not formally affiliated with a party, “Porto always comes first, as an independent political actor.”
“Therefore, Porto was the main reason for my willingness to accept the invitation initiated by President Pedro Duarte,” he explained.
When asked if he had spoken with Manuel Pizarro, the PS candidate for the October 12 elections, whose lists included him and who indicated him as his future culture councilor during the campaign, or anyone from the PS concelho, Jorge Sobrado said that he “naturally” spoke with the socialist candidate, to whom he expressed gratitude for inviting him to participate in a good electoral contest.
“Of course, I could share my reasons, the reasons that led me to accept this invitation,” he noted, and when questioned if his transition to independent councilor with a portfolio caused any unrest in the PS, he said he would not “speak for the Socialist Party.”
The new president of the Porto City Council, Pedro Duarte, also told journalists at the end of the session that “it was very easy” to reach “an understanding about the objectives (…) for the city, particularly in this cultural sector.”
“I was the one who took the initiative to invite him. I was influenced, as I have said and repeat, I was influenced by a very large cultural ecosystem in Porto and certainly if you ask the generality of participants in the cultural area of the city, there is indeed great satisfaction with this decision,” reiterated Pedro Duarte, who during the campaign had indicated he would assume the culture portfolio himself.
Pedro Duarte further mentioned that the cultural program of the coalition O Porto Somos Nós (PSD/CDS-PP/IL) “does not particularly differ from the Socialist Party, so it is absolutely compatible.”
In the municipal elections of October 12, the PS elected six mandates (Manuel Pizarro, Fernando Paulo, Francisca Carneiro Fernandes, Jorge Sobrado, Jorge Garcia Pereira, and Marta Sá Lemos), the same number as the PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition.
In addition to Pedro Duarte, the coalition elected five more councilors: Catarina Araújo (CDS-PP), Gabriela Queiroz (PSD), Rodrigo Passos (PSD), Hugo Beirão Rodrigues (IL), and Matilde Gouveia Rocha (IL).
Chega managed to elect one councilor, Miguel Corte-Real.
Jorge Sobrado, with a degree in Communication Sciences, served as the director of the Museum and Libraries of Porto between December 2022 and February 2024, a position he left to assume the vice-presidency of the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N). According to a source from CCDR-N, Sobrado will cease functions at the commission next week and will not be replaced.
