BE candidates for legislative elections voted at today’s national table

This Saturday, the BE National Council will approve lists of parliamentary candidates for the expected legislative elections on March 10, with bloc coordinator Mariana Mortagua leading in Lisbon and MEP Marisa Matias making her debut for Porto.

At the meeting of the National Council, the conclusions of which will be presented at a press conference by Mariana Mortagua and at which the political situation will also be discussed, the blocists will approve the names of parliamentary candidates from the various electoral districts, whose proposals will lead to votes at the district plenums of the militants.

According to information provided to the Lusa agency by a source in the party, in addition to the retention of Mariana Mortagua as head of the list from Lisbon and the new arrival of Marisa Matias in Porto, the name of the deputy Joana Mortagua will also be put to the vote. Setubal tops the list again.

Another name that will repeat the first place on the list will be MEP Jose Gusmão from the Faro district, who in the last elections was unable to maintain the mandate that BE had in this district.

One of the new features due to the latest elections will appear in Coimbra, on a list headed by the historian and researcher Miguel Cardina. The failure of the 2022 early legislative elections meant that the former vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Manuel Puresa, could not be re-elected as a deputy on the list he led in Coimbra.

In Aveiro, the district structure again nominated the former deputy Moisés Ferreira, a circle in which the poor result achieved by the blockers led to the loss of the two deputies he elected in 2019.

Of the lists on which the National Council will vote this Saturday – there are local structures that have not yet held their plenary meetings – five of them will have news related to the 2022 elections: Leiria, Viana do Castelo, Azores, Madeira . and Europe.

For Leiria it will be Rafael Henriques, for Viana do Castelo Adriana Temporan, for the Azores Joana Bettencourt, for Madeira Dina Letra and for Europe Rita Nobrega.

According to the BU charter, the National Council has the right, on the proposal of the district and regional assemblies and the Political Committee, to determine the first fifth of candidates in circles with more than three deputies and to head the list for constituencies with up to three terms. .

As Lusa reported last week, Mariana Mortagua, who led the party this year, will head the list of blockers in Lisbon for the fourth time in a row.

In second place is Fabian Figueiredo, who takes the seat left by BE parliamentary leader Pedro Filipe Soares, who announced that he will not re-contest for the position of deputy, leaving parliament at the end of this legislative session with one of the new candidates. What makes Lisbon special is the return of coach Jorge Costa as number three.

In Porto, the list will be headed by MEP Marisa Matias, followed by current MEPs José Soeiro and Isabel Pires.

In the last elections, in January 2022, Porto’s BE list was led by then coordinator Catarina Martins, who left the party’s leadership in May (she was replaced by Mariana Mortagua) and parliament in September, after 14 years as an MP.