More than a third of mayors will leave the next local councils

More than a third of the 308 mayors cannot run again in the next local elections due to term limits, most of whom represent socialist municipalities.

Just over a year after the municipal elections, 105 (out of a total of 308) mayors are currently unable to run for re-election to the next local councils due to the legal limitation of three consecutive terms for the head of the same municipality.

At least 28 other countries that found themselves in an end-of-cycle situation have since left the post vacant for succession of their vice presidents, already looking to next year’s elections, a phenomenon that has been happening especially in recent months.

Of the total number of presidents at the end of their term, 54 are Socialists, 30 are from the PSD (alone or associated), 12 are from the PCP-PEV (from the 19 chambers of this coalition), three are from the SDS-PP (from six municipalities), one is the sole president of Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP), Filipe Sousa, mayor of Santa Cruz, Madeira, and five are independents, including Rui Moreira, who is leaving the presidency of the Chamber of Porto.

In the main municipalities of the country, the PSD needs to find a candidate to replace Carlos Carreiras in Cascais (in the Lisbon district), Ricardo Rio in Braga, Rogerio Bacalhao in Faro and Ricardo Gonçalves in Santarém, the mayor who in recent days was appointed to head the Portuguese Institute of Sports and Youth, the latter confirming the invitation, although there is no official decision yet.

The PSD still needs to find a successor for José Ribau Esteves, who is three terms ahead of Aveiro after previously serving a term in the Ilhavo Chamber (between 1997 and 2013).

Among others, the PS includes Basílio Horta in Sintra (Lisbon), Eduardo Vitor Rodrigues in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto) and Rui Santos in Vila Real at the end of his term.

The CDU (PCP-PEV) will have to find successors for the presidents of Cuba (Beja), Arraiolos (Évora), Évora, Sobral de Monte Agraço (Lisbon), Avis and Monforte (Portalegre), Benavente (Santarem), Grandola, Palmela, Santiago do Cacem, Alcácer do Sal (Setúbal) and Silves in the Algarve, where Rosa Palma took over the chamber from the PSD in 2013.

Vitor Proença, the communist who has led Alcácer do Sal since 2013, previously served a term as mayor of Santiago do Cacem, while Carlos Pinto de Sá, another PCP “dinosaur”, cannot run again for the Évora seat for the same reasons, but was previously president of Montemor-o-Novo (Évora) from 1993 to 2013.

The CDS-PP, which currently leads six municipal councils, will have to find replacements for three: António Loureiro e Santos from Albergaria-a-Velha and José Pinheiro e Silva from Vale de Cambra, both in the district of Aveiro, and Luís Silveira, president of the Chamber of Velas in the Azores.

In addition to Rui Moreira, there are four other municipalities in Porto that are governed by independent movements and that will have to change their president: Maria Teresa Belém in Anadia (Aveiro), António Anselmo, mayor of Borba (Évora), Décio Natalio Pereira in Calheta (Azores) and the Madeiran Ricardo Nascimento, elected by the Ribeira Brava movement in Primeiro, although with the support of the PSD.

Most municipalities have districts where the change of presidents must take place, especially in Castelo Branco, where seven of the current 11 mayors are at the end of their cycle (Fernando Jorge, mayor of Oleiros in his third term, has already resigned in May 2023 due to health reasons), and Madeira, where six of the 10 mayors have not yet left (Lobos mayor Pedro Correia was in his third term and has already resigned, having been elected as a deputy).

Eleven municipalities change their president in Santarém (seven from the PS, three from the PSD and one from the PCP-PEV), nine in Porto (five from the IPS, three from the PSD and the independent Rui Moreira), eight in Viseu (five socialists and three from the PSD), seven in Portalegre (three from the PS, two from the PSD and two from the PCP) and another seven in the Azores (four from the PS, one from the PSD, one from the PSD-PP and another independent).

In the Aveiro district, six mayors are leaving (three from the PSD, two from the PSD-PP and one independent), in Coimbra another six (all socialists) and another half a dozen in Lisbon (three from the PS, two from the PSD and one from the CDU).

At the end of the cycle, Braga will have five mayors (four Social Democrats and one Socialist), and Faro will have five more (three Socialists, one PSD and one PCP).

The maximum with four mayors is Evora (two from the PCP, one from the PS and an independent from Borba), Guarda (two PSD and two PS) and Setúbal (three from the PCP-PEV and a socialist from Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, who participated in Operation Influential Man).

In Viana do Castelo there are three mayors who cannot run again (two Socialists and one Social Democrat), in Vila Real there are three more (two from the PS and one from the PSD), and in Leiria there is only José Abreu (PS) from Figueiro dos Vinhos.

Bragança is the only district without presidents at the end of the cycle, after the departure of the three mayors it had under these conditions.

Of those elected for a third term in 2021, at least 28 presidents have already left office for various reasons, many following the last legislative and European elections.

In Aveiro, the then presidents of Vagos, Santa Maria da Feira and Ovar, as well as the mayors of Valpaços and Vila Poucá de Aguiar (Vila Real) and Moncorvo (Bragança) were elected as PSD deputies.

The Socialist mayors of Arruda dos Vinhos (Lisbon), Vendas Novas (Évora) and Nazaré (Leiria) are now also members of parliament.

When he was in his third term in the House of Bragança, Hernani Dias was elected as a deputy and is currently Secretary of State for Local Government, and Rui Ladeira, President of Vuzela, is now Secretary of State for Forests.

In the European elections, Hélder Sousa (PSD), Carla Tavares (PS) and Isilda Gomes (PS) were elected as MEPs and resigned as President of the Chambers of Mafra and Amadora (Lisbon) and Portimão, respectively.

Other mayors have left their posts to lead other organisations: Raul Almeida has already left the Social Democratic Chamber of Mira (Coimbra) to lead Centro Turismo, Nuno Canta (PS) left the Chamber of Montijo to lead AMARSUL, and most recently António Martins, who was president of Vimioso, suspended his third term to lead the social security service in Bragança.