49 years of right-wing presidencies in Viseu came to an end this Sunday, October 12th. For the first time since 1976, the president of the Viseu municipality will not be from the CDS or PSD. Even without an absolute majority, socialist João Azevedo managed to get the better of the historic Fernando Ruas (PSD) by just 799 votes and was elected president of the Beira chamber. The socialist thus managed to improve what had already been historic in 2021reaching 38.26%. Now, he received 42.28% of the votes and was finally elected president of the chamber.
This PS victory becomes even more important, taking into account that the Viseu district has always been traditionally right-wing. This was, in fact, why it became known as Cavakistan, since Cavaco Silva, former Prime Minister and President of the Republic, always won in that region.
A little further south, in Coimbra, the PS ended up having a positive result and former minister Ana Abrunhosa ended up winning back a municipality that had already been socialist in other terms. With this, José Manuel Silva (PSD/CDS/IL/nós Cidadãos/PPM/Volt-Portugal/MPT) ended up being president of the city for only four years, being defeated across the board. Speaking with no final results yet – but with everything practically said -, Ana Abrunhosa said it was a victory for everyone and promised to work to “show that it is worth staying in Coimbra”, saying he also wanted to show the middle class that the city treats people well.
Beja and Vendas Novas: surprises in Alentejo
Further south came two of the biggest surprises of election night. Starting with New Sales, the PSD won for the first time an authority that since 1976 had never belonged to parties other than the left-wing.
Also historic was the result of the social democrats… in Beja, where they competed in coalition with the CDS and IL and won for the first time in 49 years of local elections. The result is even more overwhelming when compared to the 2021 vote: four years ago, the ‘orange’ had 18.53% of the votes. Now? The vote rose to 31.14%which translates into two councilors. This number of mandates also has the PS and the CDU, which ended up ahead of Chega (which elected only one councilor in the municipal executive).
Much closer, however, was the PS’s victory in Évora, where Carlos Zorrinho managed to beat the PSD by 156 votes. The margin was even tighter than four years ago, when the CDU won the municipality by 273 votes. The communists, in fact, suffered some significant defeats in Alentejo, where they also lost Monforte and some strongholds, such as Serpa, Vidigueira or Grândola. However, they managed to minimize their losses by winning some chamber presidencies in cities such as Montemor-o-Novo or Sines.
Setúbal: the triumph of the dissident and the fall of the CDU
Defeat across the board suffered the communists in Setúbal, where André Martins, who presided over the municipality, ended up being defeated across the board. The first projections indicated that the incumbent could move to fourth place, after Chega (third), the PS (second) and the independent Maria das Dores Meira, who ended up winning the municipality with a range between 29% and 34% of the votes. Dores Meira ran in these elections as an independent, supported by the PSD and the CDS, after leaving in a split with the PCP, the party to which she belonged and for which she presided over the municipality.
However, the result was ‘close’ and socialist Fernando José ended up with a very close percentage of votes.
With this result confirmed, it was the first time since 2002 that the Setúbal municipality was not presided over by a CDU face. This, combined with the result in Évora, it means that the PCP-PEV coalition loses the two district capitals whose presidency it still had.
Faro: dispersion to the right gave victory to the left
Further south, the PS managed to win the presidency of the Faro municipality, with António Pina (who was once mayor next door, in Olhão) dethroning the PSD, which had governed the Faro municipality since 2009.
Some dispersion of votes to the right may have contributed to this result, with Chega’s candidate (Pedro Pinto, who came in third place) ‘stealing’ votes from the PSD (whose candidacy was led by Cristóvão Norte), the which allowed the municipality to win with 39.48% of the votes. This translates into four councilors, one more than the PSD and two more than Chega.
However, a curious fact: for the Municipal Assembly, it was not the socialists who won, with the presidency of this body being won by the list led by Macário Correia (34.65%), from the PSD, with the PS coming very close (33.77%).