Carlos Moedas will govern the Lisbon municipality without an absolute majority, with a leftist majority and without any natural coalition.
The first projections that came out at 9 pm this Sunday indicated a tie between Medina and Moedas, but the former had the advantage of all the polls, which gave him victory. By midnight it became known that the coalition headed by Moedas had won key parishes such as Arroios, Alvalade, and Lumiar, which belonged to the PS. Moedas came close to victory, but it only came in the early hours of the morning, after 2:00 a.m.: all votes counted, Moedas won the presidency of the Lisbon City Council.
Carlos Moedas' victory is achieved with 83,121 votes, or 34.25%. Fernando Medina - who has governed Lisbon for the last six years and who in the 2017 elections had already come out weakened without the absolute majority that Costa had left him - comes out, this time, defeated with 80 822 votes, or 33.30%. Both will manage to elect seven councilors.
Carlos Moedas won with the coalition New Timeswhich brought together the PSD, CDS, Aliança, MPT and PPM (in 2017, PSD and CDS ran separately, with the latter joining the MPT and PPM in the candidacy). Fernando Medina was running for another term for the coalition More Lisbonwhich brought together the PS, Livre and also the associations Citizens for Lisbon e Lisbon is Lots of People. In third place was the CDU with the head of the list João Ferreira and 10.52% of the votes, followed by BE (6.21 %), Chega (4.41%), Liberal Initiative (4.23%) and PAN (2.73%).
In the Municipal Assembly, the distribution is similar: New Times ahead but sharing the same number of municipal deputies as More Lisbon - 17 Members. Separating the two candidacies in what concerns the Municipal Assembly were only 886 votes. The CDU will have six MPs, followed by the BE with four. The Liberal Initiative (slightly ahead of Chega with 5.95% of the vote) will have five MPs - the same number as Chega (5.35 %). Finally, the PAN will elect one MP.
Regarding the Parish Assemblies, the PS/Livre won 13 freguesias (Ajuda, Alcântara, Campo de Ourique, Misericórdia, Santa Maria Maior, São Vicente, Penha de França, Beato, Marvila, Benfica, Campolide, Olivais and Santa Clara)The PSD/CDS kept 10 (Arroios, Belém, Estrela, Santo António, Parque das Nações, Avenidas Novas, Areeiro, São Domingos de Benfica, Alvalade, and Lumiar); the CDU kept its historical parish of Carnide.
The complete results can be found here.
The Next Steps
Carlos Moedas is now President-elect of the Lisbon City Council - elected because he still has to take office, something that should happen at the end of October, beginning of November. It will now be up to the outgoing President of the Municipal Assembly to proceed with the installation of the new municipal executive, according to Law 169/99This must happen within 20 days of the final tabulation of the election results. The next few weeks will be used to make the transition between the city executives, and Medina has already assured that he will collaborate in changing the portfolios and the affairs of the City Council.
Moedas will govern a city with no absolute majority, a leftist majority and no natural coalition. The PSD/CDS coalition will have to negotiate, both in City Council meetings and in the Municipal Assembly - with a majority formed, in theory, by a PS, CDU and BE in agreement. On his side, Moedas will still have several important parishes, such as Avenidas Novas, Arroios, Alvalade, Lumiar, Parque das Nações, and São Domingos de Benfica, which used to belong to the PS - the parishes of Estrela, Santo António, Belém, and Areeiro already belonged to his party. Still, the PS maintains large parishes such as Olivais, Benfica, Marvila and Penha de França, or Campo de Ourique, which it only secured with a difference of 25 votes over the coalition New Times.
In the parishes, note the entry of smaller parties in some of them. The Liberal Initiative elected representatives in Alcântara, Alvalade, Areeiro, Arroios, Santo António, Lumiar, Estrela, Campo de Ourique, Parque das Nações, Campolide, São Domingos de Benfica, Avenidas Novas, and Belém; Chega was represented in Benfica, Beato, Arroios, Alvalade, Lumiar, Avenidas Novas, Olivais, Penha de França, Santa Clara, and Marvila...
As President, Carlos Moedas will now have to define his executive, which will consist of 16 people in addition to himself. That is, as the coalition New Times elected seven councilors, Moedas will necessarily have an executive very divided with the PS and with a leftist majority. The President will assign the portfolio to each of the councilors, that is, the thematic "portfolios" (Housing, Mobility, Finance, Urbanism, Green Spaces, etc.). There may be councilors without portfolio. It is not known if Moedas will give portfolios to councilors of the More Lisbon.
The PS/Livre coalition elected Fernando Medina, Inês Lobo, Inês Ucha and Miguel Gaspar by the PS, Rui Tavares for Free and yet Paula Marques and João Paulo Saraiva by the association Citizens For Lisbon. It is not yet known if all have accepted the position of councilor, if not the positions will be assigned in order of the list. One of the main doubts is with Fernando Medina, who did not clarify if he would remain as councilman in the Lisbon City Council. The PCP keeps the two councilors it had, including João Ferreira, and the BE keeps one seat on the City Council, which will be filled by the head of the list, Beatriz Gomes Dias. Moedas elected Filipe Anacoreta Correia, Joana Almeida, Filipa Roseta, Diogo Moura, Angelo Pereira and Laurinda Alves.
In 2017, in the last election, there were 493 534 registered voters, of whom 252 449 voted - that is, there was an abstention of 48.85%. In this election round, abstention was higher at 49.06% - that is, with 476 750 registered, voters were 242 843.
