The leader of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, had guaranteed in the early evening of this Sunday, October 12, that he would not resign, whatever the result. “You can take the horse out of the rain“, he insisted. The Social Democrats, alone or in coalition, had won another 124 chambers, while the results from Lisbon and Porto also pointed to victory. But the leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, claimed victory, in comparison with the results of the May legislative elections, with a result that guaranteed him five district capitals that he did not have: Viseu, Bragança, Coimbra, Évora and Faro.
“The Socialist Party showed vitality and the Portuguese once again trusted the Socialist Party”, highlighted José Luís Carneiro, while, at the party headquarters, he reacted to the preliminary results of the local authorities, pointing out that the votes counted so far allowed the socialists to stay “with the same number of district capitals” which left its “main competitors” – AD.
Given this Balance Sheet, José Luís Carneiro defined his future desire as “continue to work with all democratic humility” Then he turned to Chega.
In relation to the Algarve, recalled José Luís Carneiro, “there were concerns about the growth of the far right”. However, Chega continued, “who came to promise 60 cameras”, was “relegated to fifth place behind the CDU and the CDS itself”.
“We arrived here with the PS as the great democratic political alternative party in AD”, concluded José Luís Carneiro.
For his part, André Ventura stated that Chega won “its first municipal chambers in the party’s history, and it is symbolic that this first municipal victory was with an absolute majority in a chamber in the autonomous region of Madeira”.
Assuming for Chega the epithet of “party of municipal responsibility”, André Ventura recalled that the party also “has many more votes than the CDU and the CDS”, in response to the PS leader’s observation.
The leader of Chega stated that he was “never disappointed with the result” given by the people, but assumed that this “was not the victory and scope” the party wanted.
“This party fights to win”, he assured, “not to be second or third”.
Luís Montenegro then spoke about his main opponents and left them a message: “It is true that many officials and leaders have already spoken and presented themselves as winners”, he recalled, while listing that the PSD “had more votes, more mandates, and elected more mayors of municipal councils”, in addition to having obtained “victory in the five largest municipalities in the country” and being “in a position to lead the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities”.
It was with this balance that Montenegro spoke of “democratic humility and sense of gratitude”.
BE leader, Mariana Mortágua, acknowledged her party’s modest results, but made a positive assessment, with warnings: “Faced with this turn to the right, the left must know how to read this political moment, live up to its responsibilities and find paths of trust and dialogue.”
The general secretary of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, also recognized an electoral decline, after winning 13 of the 19 chambers that the CDU won four years ago, referring to “a reduction in the CDU’s electoral expression, whether in its voting, its mandates, or the number of municipalities in which it is a majority force”. However, he considered that “does not reflect recognition of the path, work and intervention” of the elected communists.
The perspective of Livre leader Rui Tavares was similar, recognizing results that “are positive, although moderately positive”.