He entered politics by the hand of former mayor Gilberto Viegas (PSD), was elected councilor on the list of Adelino Soares (PS), a party from which he left, slamming the door in January, together with other prominent local activists, after a long disagreement with the socialist mayor. He is now an independent candidate for the Vila do Bispo Chamber, but supported by the PSD.
It is Afonso Nascimento, whose candidacy should be officially presented this week.
In brief statements to the Sul Informação, Afonso Nascimento, who remains a councilor, although with the status of independent and with no assigned areas of responsibility, lifted the veil a little over the candidacy of the movement “Together for Change”, which he said was integrated “mostly by people who have never done it. part of any party». But the candidate, who claims to be "independent", did not want to reveal who is on the lists, nor his candidacy program…nor his résumé.
A week ago, contacted by phone and email by our newspaper, Afonso Nascimento asked to "have some patience", since, "following the intentions of this group of independents, the first to have access to this information will be the municipality's residents of Vila do Bispo».
On June 21st, when he announced that "the process of choosing candidates for the presidency of the sixteen Algarve municipalities is complete", the PSD/Algarve insisted on underlining “the high participation of independent citizens on the lists of the various municipal bodies, in particular in Olhão and Vila do Bispo». "The presence of independents is very significant and emanates from spontaneous movements of civil society, always aiming, first and foremost, at defending the interests of the populations of each of the councils", stressed the social democrats in their communiqué.
But the process of choosing Afonso Nascimento to lead this candidacy, which claims to be independent and which chose as a target to overthrow the current president of the Chamber, the socialist Adelino Soares, is not viewed favorably by some sectors of the local PSD.
To what Sul Informação he found, after initially refusing to run for the Social Democrats, due to the low numbers obtained in an informal opinion poll carried out among the population a few months ago, there are now two PSD militants who, in protest for their party's support to Afonso Nascimento, they will be trying to advance with another candidacy, also called independent, to the Town Hall and to the Parish Council of Vila do Bispo.
This whole imbroglio, in fact characteristic of politics in that county in the Southwest of the Algarve, began with the bad relationship between the mayor Adelino Soares and the president of the Municipal Assembly, Nuno Amado, also leader of the local PS council.
After the socialists of Vila do Bispo have withdrawn political confidence in Adelino Soares, the current mayor managed to take his lead and saw his re-candidacy confirmed, first at the regional level and then at the central level, by the PS.
That was the last straw in a huge glass of unease, which culminated in January with the departure of Nuno Amado, Afonso Nascimento and a group of prominent Socialist Party militants, who even handed over their cards.
At that time, Nuno Amado, in a statement, called for "a union of independent movements and other party forces, with a view to presenting a credible project for the next municipal elections." What emerged, as is known, is this candidacy “Together for Change”, led by Afonso Nascimento and with the explicit support of the PSD.
Meanwhile, other party forces are also already positioning themselves on the ground. The CDU announced in mid-April that its candidate will be Paula Vilallonga, a doctor to practice in Sagres and Vila do Bispo.
As for the Left Block, its candidate has not yet been announced, but everything indicates that the list for the Chamber will be headed by Sebastião Pernes, nature guide and current leader of the blocists' bench in the Municipal Assembly.
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