Carlos Moedas sworn in as new Lisbon mayor

Carlos Moedas, a former European Commissioner who won the municipal elections in Lisbon, was officially sworn in as the Portuguese capital’s mayor on Monday in a ceremony at city hall.

The PSD party member took his place running the most important municipal council in Portugal after winning a victory without an absolute majority in the local municipal council elections three weeks ago when he defeated the outgoing mayor Fernando Medina. No one had expected the rank outsider to win.
The ceremony of the swearing in of the new mayor, the council executive officers, as well as the Lisbon councillors elected to the municipal council and the presidents of the Lisbon parishes took place at city hall in Lisbon’s Praça do Município.
During the ceremony Moedas said “the community must be at the heart of everything. The solutions that really generate prosperity have to be taken from the bottom of the pile and made a priority”.
And added “people have to be involved in the city’s decision-making processes, we have to serve the people, solutions have to be felt by the people,” in his speech in which he pledged to create a Citizens’ Assembly.
He called his taking up of the appointment as “a rite of passage, of the peaceful transition of power and democracy at work”. Carlos Moedas, who was surrounded by his family and friends was clearly emotional at the swearing in ceremony.
As to policy decisions at city hall for the mandate 2021-2025, Carlos Moedas said that his first obligation was to help Lisboners, local companies and traders recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as quickly as possible.
“It is here that the new Recover+ programme and other rapid response initiatives come into play, but also our proposals to reduce taxes, to give more cash to families” as well as making a pledge to “cut municipal council taxes to make Lisbon a tax friendly city”.
Other areas of policy involvement are housing and urban development “accelerating the urgent reconversion of much abandoned municipal property” as well as mobility, safety and security, green spaces and culture.
Last week a letter was sent by the outgoing former mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina to the president of the Municipal Assembly, José Maximiano Leitão, resigning his post. “I think this is the solution that best serves the interests of the city, the operations of the council executive meetings and for the opposition on the council to concentrate on the future and not on the past”.
Carlos Moedas was elected the new Mayor of Lisbon Municipal Council via the coalition ‘New Times’ (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança) with 34.25% of the vote, taking the city hall out of the control of the governing Socialist PS party which has run Lisbon for the past 14 years. Fernando Medina has stood for reelection under the PS/Livre coalition ‘Mais Lisboa´ (More Lisbon).
The ‘New Times’ (Novos Tempos) coalition won seven executive councillor seats, with 34.25% of the vote (83,121 votes); the coalition ‘Mais Lisboa’ also achieved seven executive councillors with 33.3% (80,822 vires); the CDU (PCP/PEV) both got 10.52% (25,528 votes); and the Bloco Esquerda got one seat with 6.21% (15,063).
The swearing in ceremony was attended by 700 seated guests including former president Ánibal Cavaco Silva, former prime ministers Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Pedro Passos Coelho and Pedro Santana Lopes, the leader of the PSD party, Rui Rio, and the leader of the CDS-PP party Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos.