Luís Carito, former vice-president of the Portimão Chamber and former PS figurehead, announced this afternoon his “independent candidacy” to this municipality, supported by a “multi-party movement”, including the “PSD, CDS and Initiative Liberal' as well as 'independent people without a party'.
Carito arrived alone and only three minutes late for the meeting in the degraded Fortaleza de Santa Catarina, in Praia da Rocha, where he had scheduled a statement to journalists.
There, for «end speculation», announced that «after a long reflection, today, at 3 pm, I took the decision to present my candidacy to the Municipality of Portimão, as an independent».
After considering that, after eight years of the current municipal administration led by socialist Isilda Gomes, «the city is at a standstill», Luís Carito was questioned by the Sul Informação about whether he did not feel responsible for the enormous debt accumulated by the Municipality of Portimo, when it was managed by the team of which the now «independent candidate» was part, as vice-president, with the financial and municipal companies portfolio.
Carito replied that “the issue of debt is a false issue”, even saying that he was “waiting for this to be the case. leit motif of a future campaign» for the Local Elections of next October. “But I will explain, with numbers, with data, that this is a fallacy!” he insisted.
The candidate now supported by PSD, CDS and IL recalled, in his statements to journalists, having been away due to the judicial process, "which ended about a year ago", in January 2020. "I calmly hoped that this judicial process would clarify all the situations, I was acquitted of all the accusations that were made to me, I would like to emphasize that this acquittal was even requested by the Public Ministry that had initiated the accusation».
After this difficult chapter, "I made a reflection during this year". The project "in which I had been involved for eight, ten years" was "suspended" by the new socialist leadership of the Portimão Chamber, but Carito says he doesn't understand "why, even because the people who continued at the head of the Chamber were from the same party ».
The result, in his opinion, is that, «after eight years, I understand and I think that many people from Portimão do too, the city is at a standstill, without a perspective of the future, without a strategy».
Therefore, he considers it his “responsibility, having health, physical, psychological and mental conditions, to make the city take its course, towards a brighter and happier future”.
Luís Carito also voiced his discontent with the Socialist Party and its current leaders, especially at the local level.
It is that, he recalled, over the eight years that the judicial process in which he was involved as the main accused lasted, “the Socialist Party has not had any approach to me. For eight years, I was alone in a process that was directed at me and other comrades at the time».
It was a silence that remained after his acquittal of all accusations, since, since then, the PS has not had “any word with me, in the sense of understanding whether I would be available or not”.
For all these reasons, he understood that «it is necessary to give this city a perspective of the future and to do important things that need to be done, so that, in a new world, post pandemic, we can be competitive, resilient».
As for the debt of the Municipality of Portimão – which reached 180 million euros and was the second highest in the country, just after Vila Nova de Gaia -, Luís Carito argues that it was “perfectly sustained”. "A financial restructuring plan was planned, which in the meantime has not continued because people were removed from their place."
The debt, he argued, in addition to being "perfectly structured", will not have resulted, according to the candidate supported by the PSD, CDS and IL, from the many works and projects launched by the municipality, but "was the result of an economic crisis that has appeared in the meantime."
“What has happened over the last eight years is that some debt has been paid – some! it should have been much more, according to what the debt reduction plan was – and on the other hand, the city has not developed, has not invested, has not done anything», he stressed.
«The City Council had debt, but it had a structured plan to pay that debt over the years», as well as «there was an investment plan of more than 3 billion euros for the city, which, however, I don't know why, has ended. for not advancing». It was, he argued, "projects that would provide a higher income than the one that the Chamber had and that would face this debt".
“I don't feel responsible for what has been done in terms of debt payments over the past few years. Me and my comrades who were with me at the Portimão City Council, we had a plan, in which the financial effort of the City Council was not significant in relation to the volume of revenue».
«I ask: where are the more than 500 million euros that the municipality, over these years, has received? Where did the municipality invest them? Was it in debt? Do you know what the debt amount is? Do the math! But this is an issue that we will look at later on», he promised.
And does Luís Carito feel well accompanied by the PSD and CDS, who have so often accused him of corruption, bad management, bad accounts, in Council meetings, in the Municipal Assembly, in the media and on social networks?
The "independent candidate" replied that "the people who are currently in these parties, some are no longer the same, some are, others are not."
As for the fact that he made his entire political career in the Socialist Party, having even been a deputy and held several important positions in the party structure, Carito explained that “for many years, I was a member of a party out of conviction. I continue to have the same convictions, I have not lost them", "I think that social democracy and democratic socialism are the way forward and I have not changed those deep convictions". "The parties and the people at their head are one thing, political convictions are another."
As for his candidacy for the presidency of the Chamber, he stressed that he has "a project for this city, which I will discuss with the PSD, with the CDS and with the entire population of Portimão".
Despite everything, Luís Carito did not answer whether or not he is still a member of the PS. "I had conversations with people from the Socialist Party about this issue and I am not going to answer it yet," he said.
And will Manuel da Luz, the former mayor of Portimão, also a historical socialist, be one of the supporters of his “independent” candidacy, supported by the PSD, CDS and IL? "I neither confirm nor deny," Carito limited himself to replying.
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