The local government lessons from Loures

We can't yet say that bipartisanship is alive and well. But almost. Chega fell far short of even the less ambitious goals outlined by the party's municipal coordinator , Carlos Magno Magalhães, in an interview with Renascença, in which he targeted eight to ten municipal mayors, especially in Alentejo, Algarve, and Ribatejo. It won in three municipalities—Entroncamento, Albufeira, and São Vicente, in Madeira—where it hadn't even won in the legislative elections (the PSD won, and Chega came second). But it created problems and came close to winning in municipalities like Montijo.

André Ventura learned a lesson: local elections are truly local, and voters aren't fooled by plastering their image on posters for each candidate. Either Chega can attract locally—and nationally—respected cadres, or it will follow the fate of parties that never achieved local traction, like BE. The performance of its mayors will be equally important in determining whether it can establish itself.

Chega ultimately raised awareness of problems that were shaking communities and that the ruling political class refused to address. But this alert allowed some to recognize what was happening, some earlier than others, and to address voters' concerns—both locally and nationally.

And one of them, the most visible and the one who recognized his community's concerns early on, was undoubtedly Ricardo Leão, mayor of Loures. Voters now gave him an absolute majority – he gained almost 25,000 more votes and increased his number of council members from four to six. There were two episodes involving him. One in October 2024, when he advocated for the eviction of tenants from municipal housing who participated in the riots in Lisbon at the time. The second, more recent, in July, when a process of demolishing shacks in the Talude Militar neighborhood began.

With the first case, Ricardo Leão faced a fierce attack from his party comrades, including an open letter signed by António Costa, then president of the European Council, Pedro Silva Pereira, and José Leitão, titled "In defense of the honor of the Socialist Party." António Costa considered the matter serious enough to step down from his role as president of the European Council and interfere in national municipal affairs. Following this, Ricardo Leão resigned as leader of the Socialist Party's Federation of the Lisbon Urban Area. Alexandra Leitão also resigned from the FAUL's political committee.

Voters taught António Costa a lesson—he cares little where he is—but more importantly, they showed the Socialists that they were distancing themselves from the concerns and problems facing citizens, reducing their solidarity and humanism to abstract defenses.

Only those who live or used to live in a highly protected urban bubble don't understand, or haven't yet understood, that there are communities that consider a general state of vandalism—that's the expression—a situation in which rules are not followed and no one has the courage to enforce them. They haven't grasped that locally, it's known who needs help and who doesn't, and that not only is the feeling of impunity growing, but also the conviction that some people take advantage of social support without being entitled to it. Alongside this, we have the problem of excessive immigration, which the government managed to moderate by also removing that banner from Chega. As well as the feeling of insecurity, with some protagonists more concerned with statistical battles than with understanding whether and why people felt, or do feel, insecure.

José Luís Carneiro's Socialist Party seems to have finally realized that parties serve to address citizens' concerns, to do the best they can to solve problems, and not to make abstract developments about humanism, refusing to see the lack of humanism they are generating for everyone, including immigrants.

Alexandra Leitão's candidacy, which received more than ten thousand fewer votes than the combined votes of the parties that made up the coalition in 2021, also demonstrates how the Socialist Party, which she represents in some way, has distanced itself from the concerns of its electorate. Alongside, of course, the parties further to the left.

Chega had the virtue of highlighting problems no one wanted to see and began to acknowledge. These problems can be faced without populism and with concrete solutions. If the PS and PSD manage to reconnect with voters, Chega will have to find other causes. What we saw in these local elections is a lesson for those who don't want to worry about certain issues and shows that bipartisanship still thrives, with a shift in its representation in the region, with the PSD entering the urban electorate and achieving an indisputable victory.