Portugal's politics and elections

[Mike88]

Huge controversy in the Local elections in Oeiras:

Isaltino Morais, former mayor of Oeiras, saw his candidacy for mayor rejected by the local court. Another independent candidate, Sónia Amado Gonçalves, was also rejected. According to the ruling, signed by judge Nuno Tomás Cardoso, Mr. Morais candidacy wasn't legal because the list of candidates isn't identified in the proper date adding that no signatures for the candidates are found.


Left: Isaltino Morais; Right: Paulo Vistas; The mayoral race in Oeiras is getting nasty.

Isaltino Morais has 48 hours to appeal and he already said he will appeal this ruling, but he also accused the judged of impartiality, as he said that the current mayor of Oeiras, Paulo Vistas, is the best man in the judge's wedding. LOL

At the same time, the Superior Council of the Judiciary has opened an investigation on the judged and will analyse the accusations made by Isaltino Morais.

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Also, in national politics news, the President of the Republic has vetoed some parts of the Carris buses transfer to the Lisbon City Council. This is a huge blow for the Communists and, in some degree, for the government. The PCP wanted to stop any possibility of the Lisbon city to grant the management of Carris to private companies and, after very hard negotiations with PS, the government approved but it was vetoed by the President on the ground that it may be "politically counterproductive, and therefore excessive and objectionable".

[Mike88]

More polls for the October local elections:

Poll from IPOM to São João da Madeira (Aveiro district); 21,700 inhabitants: (PSD/CDS incumbent)

53.0% PSD/CDS
35.8% PS
  6.2% CDU
  1.0% PAN
  1.0% Others
  2.9% Invalid

Poll conducted between 18 and 21 July. Polled 653 voters. MoE of 3.80%

[Mike88]

Monday will be a very important day in Portuguese politics. On Monday, the statistics institute will unveiled the economic growth from the 2nd quarter of 2017. Economists say the economy will grow between 2.8% and 3.4%

Also, monday, and/or in the next few days, will be very important for many candidates for the fall local elections. Courts have until next week to decided if they accept, or not, the appeals on many candidates across the country who saw their candidacies rejected during this week. There are 3 candidates, in important races, with an uncertain future:

*Isaltino Morais, Oeiras candidate, saw his candidacy rejected last tuesday, and the local Oeiras court will decide if the 1st ruling was wrong or if it is uphold. If it is uphold, he will be most likely barred from running.

*Rui Moreira, Porto mayor and candidate for reelection: the PSD has contested Moreira's candidacy after the Electoral Commission said that Mr. Moreiras's movement name and logo are illegal.

*Paulo Fonseca, Ourém mayor and candidate for reelection: The PS candidate was declared insolvent in early August, and according to the law, he is barred from running. The PSD/CDS has asked for the nullification of his candidacy and the local court will decide on monday. If the court upholds the 1st ruling, the PS will lose their candidate for Ourém.

Also, more posters for the elections:

Lisbon PSD candidate:

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Montemor-o-Novo (Évora district), PS candidate:

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Gondomar (Porto district), Independent candidate:

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Vila Real, BE candidate:

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[Mike88]

The wildfire crisis is already the worst since 2005. Every day more and more wildfires surge almost across the country, and yesterday, August 12th, was the worst day this year with more than 260 wildfires across the country. The government has already asked for help from the European Community.

And the wildfire crisis is already making headlines in America: The New York Times has a piece about the wildfires, as does Politico.

[Mike88]

BREAKING NEWS: Oeiras court has accepted Isaltino Morais appeal and he is now officially a candidate for mayor.


Isaltino Morais candidacy has been accepted by the courts.

After days of uncertainty, Isaltino Morais is off the hook. After the judge in office refused his candidacy, Mr. Morais appealed the decision and, now, another judge has concluded that his candidacy is OK.

[Mike88]

BREAKING NEWS The PS has lost it's candidate for Ourém, Paulo Fonseca, as the final court ruling says he's insolvent and, therefore, barred from running.


Paulo Fonseca (PS), Ourém mayor since 2009.

The incumbent mayor of Ourém (Santarém district), Paulo Fonseca, saw his reelection candidacy struck down after the local court upheld the PSD/CDS request of impeachment of the PS candidate. The court says that the candidate continues insolvent, in other words bankrupt, and, according to the law, is barred from running. Mr. Fonseca is involved in many corruption scandals and the DA office has asked for his removal from office at least twice. The PS will nominate the number 2 in the list, Célia Seixo, as they are forbidden to chose another candidate from outside the lists.

[Mike88]

BREAKING NEWS The PS has lost it's candidate for Ourém, Paulo Fonseca, as the final court ruling says he's insolvent and, therefore, barred from running.


Paulo Fonseca (PS), Ourém mayor since 2009.

The incumbent mayor of Ourém (Santarém district), Paulo Fonseca, saw his reelection candidacy struck down after the local court upheld the PSD/CDS request of impeachment of the PS candidate. The court says that the candidate continues insolvent, in other words bankrupt, and, according to the law, is barred from running. Mr. Fonseca is involved in many corruption scandals and the DA office has asked for his removal from office at least twice. The PS will nominate the number 2 in the list, Célia Seixo, as they are forbidden to chose another candidate from outside the lists.

More news:

The PS will appeal this decision and the party adds they still have political confidence in Paulo Fonseca.

[Mike88]

Debates for the the key races have been announced:


Logos of the 4 main channels in Portugal: RTP, SIC, TVI and CMTV.

The 4 main generalist/news channels have agreed on the debates to be held. At the moment, RTP, SIC, TVI and CMTV have agreed to make 4 debates for the Lisbon mayoral race. The debates will have as participants the candidates of the PS, PSD, CDS, CDU and BE for Lisbon mayor. SIC will hold a debate on August 30th, TVI on September 6th, CMTV on September 8th and RTP on September 14th.

Adding to this, RTP will also hold a series of debates in many key races. The debates for the Lisbon and Porto races will be live and broadcast by RTP1, while the others will be broadcast on RTP's news channel, RTP3. The calender presented by RTP is:

August 21 - Bragança
August 22 - Vila Real
August 24 - Viana do Castelo
August 25 - Aveiro
August 28 - Viseu
August 29 - Guarda
August 30 - Braga
August 31 - Coimbra
September 1 - Castelo Branco
September 4 - Portalegre
September 5 - Santarém
September 6 - Leiria
September 7 - Setúbal
September 8 - Évora
September 11 - Beja
September 12 - Faro
September 13 - Porto

More dates for debates in other races on other channels can still be announced.

[Mike88]

Since Friday afternoon, Portugal is in a "state of calamity" because of the wildfires. This measure will end on Monday. The government approved the state of calamity, the most severe in the scale, because of the high temperatures and also for the high probability of emergence of several wildfires. Nonetheless, this measure is being very criticized. Because of the state of calamity, fireworks and hunting are forbidden and the fireworks businesses have blamed the government for more than 5 million euros in losses just during this weekend. But police and security forces are also hammering the PM and the government because they argue that there aren't enough police teams to secure forests and villages. They accuse the government of "political demagogy"

And today, there's some criticism for the PM's and PR's trip to Barcelona to attend the mass for peace while the country is in the "state of calamity".

BREAKING NEWS: A helicopter that was fighting a forest fire in Castro Daire, Viseu district, has crashed and exploded. The pilot is dead.

[Mike88]

Update on the local elections:

All of lists of candidates have been delivered to local courts across the country and some courts are still checking if the lists are 100% legal. But, overall, this is the map of candidacies delivered by the major parties:


Adding to this, the number of candidacies led by the different parties:

299 PS (with coalitions)
297 PSD (with coalitions)
304 CDU
180 CDS (with coalitions)
138 BE
  35 PAN
  23 PTP
  15 MPT
  11 PNR
    3 PPM (with coalitions)
    5 JPP
    3 L/TDA (with coalitions)
  10 PDR (with coalitions)
    9 NC
    2 PPV/CDC
    1 MAS
  18 PCTP
    2 PURP
  81 Independent

There are a total of about 1,440 candidates for the fall local elections, although some independent candidacies may still be published.

[Mike88]

Government asks Porto Editora publications to stop selling controversial exercise book for boys and girls.


Cover of the controversial books.

In the last few days, a big controversy about an exercise book to small children has created a very surprising reaction by social media and the government. Porto Editora, Portugal's main publish company, unveiled a new exercise book, one for boys and other for girls. But the reaction was explosive. Social media, plus some MP's from the PS and other personalities accused Porto Editora of sexism and discrimination. Porto Editora refused those attacks arguing that there's no change in the books other than one is blue and the other is pink.

But, the government has stepped in. The Committee for Citizenship and Equality, by the request of the deputy minister, Eduardo Cabrita, has asked Porto Editora to remove the books from book shops. The committee says the books accentuate "gender stereotypes", plus present "different degrees of difficulty in some of the proposed activities for boys and girls." Nonetheless, the committee says they are open to help Porto Editora to review the content of the books.

[Mike88]

Today, two controversies surrounding local election candidates:

First, Assunção Cristas, CDS leader and candidate for Lisbon. Ms Cristas posted this tweet yesterday:

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This tweet created a very bad reaction on twitter apparently. The tweet has more than 100 comments and most of them are people reminding Ms Cristas that FCPorto is also in the CL and that the teams represent Portugal and not Lisbon. Some even said Cristas has lost the FCPorto voters support.

And now, remember André Ventura? The PSD candidate for Loures who said gypsies only live from social care and was labeled a racist because of this? Well... now the PS candidate says she wouldn't mind forming a coalition with him in Loures.


From left to right: Sonia Paixão (PS); André Ventura (PSD); Bernardino Soares (CDU).

In an interview to Observador newspaper, the PS candidate said the Mr. Ventura would be a very good councilman but a very bad mayor. She also adds that she has information the PSD and CDU want to remake the coalition they have since 2013, the so-called "vodka-orange" coalition. This is a huge, and embarrassing, U-turn from the PS. The PS candidate was one of the first to label Mr. Ventura as a racist and António Costa even mocked Passos Coelho for not withdrawing his support to Mr. Ventura.

The back and forward that politics is...

[VPH]

Today, two controversies surrounding local election candidates:

First, Assunção Cristas, CDS leader and candidate for Lisbon. Ms Cristas posted this tweet yesterday:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

This tweet created a very bad reaction on twitter apparently. The tweet has more than 100 comments and most of them are people reminding Ms Cristas that FCPorto is also in the CL and that the teams represent Portugal and not Lisbon. Some even said Cristas has lost the FCPorto voters support.

As a Benfica fan, this is hilarious

[mvd10]

Hey, our clubs can't even quailify for the Europa League groupstage .

[Mike88]

Hey, our clubs can't even quailify for the Europa League groupstage .

I think that Vitesse is in the EL group stage. But it's astonishing that a small country like Portugal has 5 teams in European competitions, 3 in the Champions and 2 in the Europe league.

Anyway, Loures mayoral race is really a basket of treasures. After Sónia Paixão, PS candidate for Loures, said she would be open to a coalition with the PSD, there was a meltdown. Twitter exploded with PSD/CDS supporters mocking her and António Costa and PS followers saying they wouldn't vote PS in Loures or that the party should drop her as a candidate. Even some PS MP's said they wouldn't vote for her. Then she posted a statement on facebook saying she didn't said that and accused Observador newspaper of distorting her words and making "fake news". But, the interview was by telephone, and the newspaper has tapes. Later today, Ms. Paixão made another statement saying she was just being ironic (contradicting her statement from last night). Hilarious.

The race in Loures is a mess. The PS, i believe, just lost the election here and i wouldn't say with 100% certainty that they will be in 2nd place... many PS voters may fell disillusioned and skip this election, while PSD and CDU voters may become motivated. Mr. Ventura will not win but if he ends up in 2nd place, the PSD will open champagne bottles.

[Mike88]

In 34 days, the local elections will be held. The elections are, in reality, 3 separate elections. There are 3 local government bodies to be elected on October 1st: The municipal chamber, the municipal assembly and the parish assembly.

The Municipal Chamber (MC) is the executive body of the municipality. The president of the municipal chamber, aka the mayor, is the head of the most voted list. The MC has a number of councillors depending on the size of the municipality, that are given administrative roles by the mayor. In some cases, mayors give roles for councillors elected from other parties in a way to all parties be involved in local government. Those who are not given any roles, act as the opposition in the municipal executive.

The Municipal Assembly (MA) is the legislative body of the municipality. This body approves and discusses laws and budgets suggested by the municipal executive. The number of members depend also on the size of the municipality. It gathers 5 times a year, in February, April, June, September and November or December. The president of the assembly has the power to also call for extraordinary sessions of the assembly when he feels it's necessary or when he is asked to. The MA is also the place where voters can intervene and ask questions to the mayor or other local officials.

The Parish Assembly (PA) is the lowest local governmental body and is the legislative body of parishes. The parish assemblies are responsible, contrary to the municipal assemblies, for the election of the members of the Parish Council, which is the executive body of parishes. The head of the most voted list for the Parish Assembly is automatically elected Parish President. The PA approves and discusses laws, inventories and budgets proposed by the Parish council. In parishes with less than 150 voters, the parish assembly is substituted by a plenary of voters (direct democracy).

And here are the sample ballots that are given to each voter on election day:

Municipal Chamber election:


Municipal Assembly election:


Parish Assembly election:

[Mike88]

Today, the first big debate for the local elections will be held. The 5 major candidates for Lisbon mayor will debate on SIC TV and SIC Notícias at around 20:30 (Lisbon time). Nonetheless, a number of debates have been held in the last few days on RTP3, RTP's news channel:

Debate for Bragança (PSD incumbent), held on August 21st:

Debate for Vila Real (PS incumbent), held on August 22nd:

Debate for Aveiro (PSD/CDS incumbent), held on August 25th:

Debate for Guarda (PSD incumbent), held on August 26th:

Debate for Viseu (PSD incumbent), held on August 28th:

Debate for Viana do Castelo (PS incumbent), held on August 29th:

TVI24, TVI's news channel, has also held at least two debates between the candidates for Oeiras (Lisbon district) and Matosinhos (Porto district).

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Question Mike: how important is Portugal's relations to its former colonies (and immigration from them) to domestic politics?

[Mike88]

Question Mike: how important is Portugal's relations to its former colonies (and immigration from them) to domestic politics?

Somewhat important. Only Brazilian and Angolan relations had or have some impact in Portuguese politics. Brazil for instant had some impact in our politics because of the Lava Jato investigations. While investigating Lula's connections with many foreign companies, it was found that the former Socialist PM José Sócrates, was involved in many shady deals and other stuff with the Brazilian government. Portuguese police also found, in their own investigation on the money schemes of the former PM, many links to Brazil and they have been cooperating with the Brazilian police. Also, Portugal Telecom's fall is directly linked to many ruinous deals with many Brazilian communications companies.

Angola has also a very big impact on our politics. The fact that Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the current President of Angola, was a big shareholder in many Portuguese companies during many years, made Angola-Portugal relations a very hot political topic. Many pundits, analysts or economist point that Portugal was, and still is, a money washing machine for the Angolan regime. The New York Times also pointed that out. At the same time, Portuguese justice is currently investigating many high profile Angolan politicians because of their dubious deals in Portugal. This often infuriates the Angola regime as they accuse Portugal of colonialism but, in reality, it's Angola elite that are using Portugal.

Immigration from Brazil, Angola and other colonies, also has some political impact. Currently, Portugal is seeing a huge immigration wave of middle class Brazilians who are fleeing Brazil due to the economic crisis and insecurity. Portugal always had a very big Brazilian community, but, during our own crisis, many Portuguese immigrated to Brazil but today the roles have swapped again. Angolan and other African colonies immigration is also big in Portugal. The vast majority of the Afro-Portuguese population is from Cape Verde, Angola, S. Tomé and Principe, Guiné Bissau and Mozambique. Although this community is quite big, there is a problem of inclusion in society and sometimes, more often than not, there is clashes with police forces and accusations of racism that even this year sparked a big political debate. Immigration from Portuguese people to Angola is also a reality but it was much bigger during the Troika years (2012-2014). Since then, as the Angolan economy collapsed, many Portuguese immigrants had to come back to Portugal due to a high risk of falling into poverty in Angola.

[Mike88]

The debate, broadcast by SIC TV and SIC Notícias, between the 5 major candidates for Lisbon ended about a hour ago. The debate was quite bad and weak IMO. The PSD, CDS, CDU and BE candidates spent more time attacking the PS candidate, Fernando Medida, and Medina himself wasn't able to dominate the debate as he also appeared, in my opinion, weak.


Debate between the candidates. Left: BE, CDS and CDU candidates; Right: PS and PSD candidates.

The candidates focused most on housing and the lack of it in Lisbon. Mr. Medina was attacked by the other 4 candidates for doing nothing about until now. Plus he was also attacked for contradictions about how he would finance Lisbon's public transports.

First half of the debate.

Second half of the debate.

[Mike88]

As the campaign for the local elections is starting, other political news are making headlines. The two main stories right now is Cavaco Silva's speech in the PSD summer university and the Volkswagen factory strike in Setúbal.

First, Cavaco Silva. The former PM and PR was invited by the PSD leader, Passos Coelho, to make a speech in the PSD summer university, a gathering of young members of the PSD who want to enter in politics. In his speech, Cavaco made a full blown attack against António Costa and also to the current President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. He criticized the "frenetic verbiage of today's politicians", a direct attack to Marcelo and Costa, plus he also criticized those who "chirp" only for political purposes.


Cavaco Silva delivering his speech in the PSD summer university.

In the speech, he also compared António Costa policies to Françoise Hollande and Alexis Tsipras, saying all 3 of them changed their minds and policies when reality arrived. He also praised Emmanuel Macron's way to deal with the press and with his ministers. Although his speech galvanized PSD supporters in the room, the same didn't occur for the PS and Marcelo. The PS said Cavaco has become a "reactionary" and Marcelo asked for respect from Cavaco and talked about those Presidents who end their term disrespected, a direct attack on Cavaco as he ended his term, in 2016, with a lower popularity than Passos Coelho.

And now, the Volkswagen factory strike. Yesterday, for the 1st time ever, workers from the Volkswagen factory in Palmela, Setúbal district, strike against the administration plans to work exceptionally on Saturday's to construct the new model SUV T-Roc. The administration purposed a second weekly holiday for workers, a 175 euros increase in wages and 25% increase on the Shift allowance. All summed up, workers would see a 16% increase in wages.


Workers of Volkswagen factory on strike.

The workers committee approved this but the unions didn't, most especially the unions close to the PCP, so, the deal fell and the workers decided to go on strike. But the strike is being labeled as stupid by all parties with the exception of the PCP. The media and pundits suggest this strike is a war between the BE and PCP. The former workers leader in the factory was from the BE and he was quite moderate, having even a very good working relationship with the administration. But when he ended his term a year ago, everything changed. The PCP unions want to control the factory while the BE unions are giving a fight.

And a comic moment: On tuesday, Pedro Nuno Santos, secretary of parliament affairs, made several interviews and he said the government would cut taxes to 3.6 million families in 2018. Many newspapers even made this a headline in their print editions but it was false. The government proposal is to reduce taxes to... 1.6 million families. Priceless.

[Mike88]

Aximage poll for Correio da Manhã/CMTV and Jornal de Negócios:

43.0% PS (-1.0)
22.9% PSD (nc)
  9.1% BE (-1.0)
  7.8% CDU (nc)
  5.2% CDS (-0.1)
  9.1% Others/Invalid (+1.6)
  2.9% Undecided (+0.5)

Q: How to you rate the government's actions during the wildfire crisis?

38.5% Bad
36.8% Average
22.3% Good
  2.4% Undecided

Poll conducted on 29 and 30 August. Polled 597 voters. MoE of 4.00%.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

https://newleftreview.org/II/106/catarina-martins-the-portuguese-experiment

Interview (in English) with Catarina Martins of BE

[RodPresident]

As the campaign for the local elections is starting, other political news are making headlines. The two main stories right now is Cavaco Silva's speech in the PSD summer university and the Volkswagen factory strike in Setúbal.

First, Cavaco Silva. The former PM and PR was invited by the PSD leader, Passos Coelho, to make a speech in the PSD summer university, a gathering of young members of the PSD who want to enter in politics. In his speech, Cavaco made a full blown attack against António Costa and also to the current President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. He criticized the "frenetic verbiage of today's politicians", a direct attack to Marcelo and Costa, plus he also criticized those who "chirp" only for political purposes.


Cavaco Silva delivering his speech in the PSD summer university.

In the speech, he also compared António Costa policies to Françoise Hollande and Alexis Tsipras, saying all 3 of them changed their minds and policies when reality arrived. He also praised Emmanuel Macron's way to deal with the press and with his ministers. Although his speech galvanized PSD supporters in the room, the same didn't occur for the PS and Marcelo. The PS said Cavaco has become a "reactionary" and Marcelo asked for respect from Cavaco and talked about those Presidents who end their term disrespected, a direct attack on Cavaco as he ended his term, in 2016, with a lower popularity than Passos Coelho.

And now, the Volkswagen factory strike. Yesterday, for the 1st time ever, workers from the Volkswagen factory in Palmela, Setúbal district, strike against the administration plans to work exceptionally on Saturday's to construct the new model SUV T-Roc. The administration purposed a second weekly holiday for workers, a 175 euros increase in wages and 25% increase on the Shift allowance. All summed up, workers would see a 16% increase in wages.


Workers of Volkswagen factory on strike.

The workers committee approved this but the unions didn't, most especially the unions close to the PCP, so, the deal fell and the workers decided to go on strike. But the strike is being labeled as stupid by all parties with the exception of the PCP. The media and pundits suggest this strike is a war between the BE and PCP. The former workers leader in the factory was from the BE and he was quite moderate, having even a very good working relationship with the administration. But when he ended his term a year ago, everything changed. The PCP unions want to control the factory while the BE unions are giving a fight.

And a comic moment: On tuesday, Pedro Nuno Santos, secretary of parliament affairs, made several interviews and he said the government would cut taxes to 3.6 million families in 2018. Many newspapers even made this a headline in their print editions but it was false. The government proposal is to reduce taxes to... 1.6 million families. Priceless.

Any chance of PSD refusing to renominate Sousa in next presidential election? This would be a fun turn of things.

[Mike88]

Any chance of PSD refusing to renominate Sousa in next presidential election? This would be a fun turn of things.

No, not at all. Presidential elections are very personal and parties normally throw their support to candidates that are already in the race. The few exceptions are from the PCP, where all their candidates are nominated by the central committee. Marcelo will have the support of the PSD and even those who don't like him, Cavaco and Passos especially, will vote for him in 2021. The history between Marcelo, Cavaco and Passos is a long one and has drama equivalent to a Mexican soap opera.