The head of the list of the “Viver Lisboa” (PS/Livre/BE/PAN) coalition for the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, André Moz Caldas (PS), was elected president today with a six-vote difference to the list led by Margarida Mano, from the PSD/IL/CDS coalition.
At the first meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML), which took place immediately after the installation of municipal bodies for the four-year period 2025-2029, at Gare Marítima de Alcântara, the 75 municipal deputies had two lists to vote for the election of the AML Board, having won that of the socialist André Moz Caldas, who has Ofélia Janeiro (Livre) as 1st secretary and António Morgado Valente (PAN) as 2nd secretary.
The list headed by André Moz Caldas won with 37 votes, defeating the head of the list of “For you, Lisbon” – PSD/CDS-PP/IL, Margarida Mano (PSD), who had 31 votes, and who proposed Jorge Nuno Sá (independent nominated by the PSD) as 1st secretary of the AML Board and Martim Borges de Freitas (CDS-PP) as 2nd secretary.
In the nominal vote and by secret vote, there were also two abstentions and five invalid votes, reported Margarida Mano (PSD), who chaired the meeting as she was at the top of the list with the most votes for AML in the municipal elections on October 12th.
At the beginning of the work, PCP deputy Natacha Amaro defended “a plural, balanced solution that, in some way, reflected the electoral results”, considering that “both proposals do not reflect the balance between current majority political forces”.
The communist defended a single-member vote instead of nominative lists, which would imply a change to the current AML regulations and, therefore, would make a vote today unviable, with the proposal being rejected by PSD, CDS-PP and IL.
In the local elections on October 12, the most voted list for the AML was the PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition, headed by Margarida Mano (PSD), former Minister of Education and Science in the Government of Pedro Passos Coelho, followed by the PS/Livre/BE/PAN candidacy, with André Moz Caldas (PS), former Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in the Government of António, as head of the list. Costa.
Among the 75 members that make up the AML, the PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition elected 21 deputies, in addition to 11 presidents of parish councils, the PS/Livre/BE/PAN candidate obtained 18 deputies, totaling 12 presidents of parish councils, the CDU got six elected and a council president (Carnide) and Chega elected six deputies.
With the election of the AML Board, the socialist André Moz Caldas will succeed the outgoing president of the AML, Rosário Farmhouse (independent nominated by the PS), who did not return to be a candidate in the last local elections.
In a brief speech after the results of the vote, André Moz Caldas thanked the social democrat Margarida Mano “for the dignity in which she presided over the work of this session” and stated that he counts on the former Minister of Education and Science’s availability to exercise the mandate of municipal deputy, considering that “her service to Lisbon certainly makes the city as a whole grow”.
“I will exercise this mandate with complete impartiality, treating all municipal groups equally and seeking to ensure, with all the rigor, but also with the required firmness, the quality and serenity of the work of this Assembly at the service of all Lisbon residents. This will be the meaning of conducting the presidency of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly that I will convey”, declared the socialist, considering that this position, in the city where he was born, is “one of the greatest, if not the greatest, honor” that has ever been granted to him.
In the elections on October 12, the social democrat Carlos Moedas was re-elected president of the Lisbon City Council, through the candidacy “For you, Lisbon” – PSD/CDS-PP/IL, which obtained 41.69% of the votes and achieved eight mandates, one more than the seven achieved in 2021, leaving one short of obtaining an absolute majority, which would require the election of nine of the 17 members that make up the capital’s executive.
The second most voted candidate was “Viver Lisboa” – PS/Livre/BE/PAN, headed by socialist Alexandra Leitão, who elected six councillors, followed by the Chega party, which won two mandates, and the CDU (PCP/PEV coalition), which obtained one councillor.