“I still have a lot to give to the people of Lisbon,” Moedas says
Carlos Moedas is officially throwing his hat back into the ring. The current mayor of Lisbon has confirmed he will run for re-election this October.
“I still have a lot to give to the people of Lisbon,” Moedas told Expresso newspaper on Thursday, noting that one term simply isn’t enough to deliver on the commitments he made.
“Nobody in four years can solve the problems that a Socialist executive created during 14,” the PSD social democrat stated.
According to Moedas, the city needs stability to get things done and not “radical experiments.”
While his re-election bid is confirmed, Moedas hasn’t yet finalised the list of candidates who will join him, especially alliances with other right-wing parties like CDS-PP and Iniciativa Liberal.
Moedas was elected Lisbon’s new mayor in 2021 as head of the ‘Novos Tempos’ (New Times, in English) coalition, which included the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and CDS. Winning with 34.25% of the vote, his victory was seen as a major upset after over a decade of Socialist (PS) leadership. The incumbent, Socialist mayor Fernando Medina, had been widely expected to win based on polls at the time.
In a bid to win back leadership of the Lisbon council, PS had already confirmed their former parliamentary leader Alexandra Leitão as their candidate back in January.
The announcement was made at the time by then PS secretary general, Pedro Nuno Santos, who said the decision was made “very simply.”
“The capital is very important; Lisbon is being very badly governed by PSD and the current mayor. So, PS had to bet big and Alexandra Leitão is (was) the PS parliamentary leader and one of the most important figures of the party,” Pedro Nuno Santos said.
Portugal’s municipal elections have been set for October 12.
