Incumbent impressively confirmed: Voters in Rheine’s Portuguese twin city Leiria have confirmed Mayor (Presidente) Gonçalo Lopes in office in the local elections on 26 September. Lopes’ Socialist Party (PS) achieved a clear election victory with 52.47 percent of all votes cast. The social-conservative PSD came a distant second with 22.38 per cent of the vote.
For classification: In the European Parliament, Portuguese PS and German Social Democrats work together in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D); the PSD forms a group in the European Parliament with the CDU and CSU in the Group of the European People’s Party (EPP). As before the election, Lopes’ PS has eight political deputies in Leiria’s city hall, the PSD three.
The former education and culture deputy Lopes had taken over as mayor two years ago from Raul Miguel de Castro, who had entered the National Parliament (Assembly of the Republic) in Lisbon as an independent deputy.
In the election campaign, the 45-year-old Lopes focused on the themes he had already practised as incumbent: transparency and citizen participation (“The citizens design their own city”). In addition, Lopes focused on climate and sustainability issues alongside the topics of work, tourism and housing. Leiria should be further developed into a “recreational space” for the people, especially after the Corona experience.
“In the next four years we will work hard to show that we deserve your trust,” Lopes wrote on social media after his election victory, assuring that he wanted to be “president of all the people of Leiria”. Turning to the opposition PSD, Lopes said: “We will respect their positions and work as a team whenever possible.”