A “beautiful” result, which allowed the Socialist Party to “strengthen its position in the Algarve, by obtaining more votes and winning more parishes”, which join the ten Chambers it already held and maintained. This is the balance that António Eusébio, president of PS/Algarve, makes of the election night this Sunday, in the region, in which this party was the clear winner.
Suffice it to say that, compared to 2013, the socialists garnered over 18 thousand votes throughout the Algarve (83.689 in total), and achieved absolute majorities in all Chambers that already had PS presidents (they elected, in total, 9 more councilors , a total of 60). In some cases, such as Vila do Bispo and Olhão, these majorities were won – and for the first time – by mayors who had to face internal problems, at the level of their municipal party structures.
For the rest, at the regional level, the socialists only lost one councilor of those they already had before. In Silves, Rosa Palma (CDU) won an absolute majority and “stole” a seat in the Chamber from the PS.
Em Faro, where António Eusébio himself went to vote (four councilors), in Albufeira (three), in Vila Real de Santo António (two), in Monchique (two) and in Castro Marim (two), the PS came out again defeated, but lost no members in the council.
“In Castro Marim, we were close to getting another Chamber, the difference was very small (32 votes)”, he illustrated. In Faro, where Rogério Bacalhau was re-elected with an absolute majority, supported by a PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM coalition, António Eusébio stressed that the socialists obtained "two thousand more votes than in 2013", an increase that proved insufficient to win.
And if the PS guaranteed absolute majorities in all the councils where it was and will continue to be in power, the same happened in practically all the other councils – the exception is Castro Marim. "Now, what is expected is that the presidents of the Chambers, with responsibility, fulfill the objectives they set themselves and the electoral programs", he said.
The Socialists also achieved a significant increase in the level of Parish Assemblies, winning 44 together, three more than in 2013, and electing 362 elements. In the Municipal Assemblies, the Socialists elected twenty more deputies than four years ago, in the regional accounts (155 mandates out of 312 that were in dispute), despite the fact that they lost the presidency of the Municipal Assembly of Faro.
The president of the Algarve Federation of the PS and deputy to the Assembly of the Republic said that the result obtained by the party in the Algarve «has already been recognized and praised by the National Federation».
For António Eusébio, these results came to “reinforce the work that has been done by the Federation and by the mayors in the last four years”. Even so, he does not assume (at least for now) as a re-candidate for the position in the next elections for the party's leadership, at regional level, which will take place in 2018. of the Republic and as councilor in Faro", said.
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