Prime Minister António Costa’s Socialists won Sunday’s municipal elections in Portugal, but the victory was marred by the surprise defeat they suffered in Lisbon, their fiefdom for 14 years.
According to the almost complete results released Monday morning, the Socialists won the local elections for the third time in a row, with 34.4% of the vote and at least 147 municipalities.
The center-right opposition won 108 mayoralties and obtained 30.8% of the vote.
All in all, the Socialist Party was expected to obtain a smaller victory than four years ago, when they achieved the best result in their history, with 161 mayoralties and 38% of the votes.
On that occasion, the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center-right) and its allies, achieved 98 municipalities and a mark of 28%.
On the other hand, the voters of the capital derailed all the forecasts by voting overwhelmingly for the former European commissioner Carlos Moedas, whose broad right-wing coalition defeated the socialist Fernando Medina, with 35.8% of the votes, compared to 31.7% collected. by the outgoing mayor.
Reacting at the end of the electoral night, which lasted until the early hours of Monday, António Costa was satisfied with a “very clear victory” at the national level, but acknowledged the “frustration” that the “unexpected defeat” entailed in Lisbon.
The next mayor of the capital, 51, was European Commissioner for Science and Innovation between 2014 and 2019.
Before his time in Brussels, he was Secretary of State and was in charge of contacts with the troika of creditors (European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) that, in 2011, rescued Portugal in exchange for a rigorous austerity plan budgetary.
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