Desidério Silva, who has already been the mayor of Albufeira and the Algarve Tourism Region, and wants to retake the chair of the municipal presidency in the so-called “capital of tourism”, today presented his candidacy. "I can't stand still, with my arms crossed," he confessed.
After, in July of last year, resigned from the PSD, saddened by the fact that the party did not want his collaboration, nor to take advantage of his know-how, the candidate for the City Council is now at the head of the independent movement «Desidério por Albufeira».
And he made a point of stressing, in the open-air presentation, that it is a candidacy that "is not against anyone, it is not against the current Chamber", also "it is not for a political career, because I have already done it", ensuring that his campaign “will be all positive”.
The movement that supports him, he underlined, encompasses "independent citizens who do not see themselves in a political party". The teams that will apply to all bodies – City Council, Municipal Assembly and Parish Councils – «are being constituted with total freedom», having as criteria only «competence» and «availability and willingness to do something different».
Desidério Silva added that “many of the people I invited told me that if it was for a party, they wouldn't accept it. But like this, in an independent movement, they are here».
In addition, he underlined, there are "many women in this process", and not just "in decorative places, they are in eligible places or they are even the heads of list". This is the case of Filipa Sousa, who will head the list for the União de Freguesias de Albufeira and Olhos d'Água, or Emília Bexiga, former president of the Municipality of PS Albufeirense, but who will now be a candidate for the Parish Council of Paderne, by this independent movement.
Interestingly, today, March 10, marks nine years after Filipa Sousa's victory in other roles quite different from politics, at the Festival da Canção. "I didn't even remember it, but they sent me a message just now to congratulate me," he commented to the Sul Informação.
«I never thought of getting involved in politics and I only do it because it is not a party, but a movement of citizens that wants to do more for Albufeira. My land has already given me a lot in these years, now it's time for me to give you something», added the young candidate.
The remaining heads of the list were also announced by Desidério Silva: they are Raul Ferreira to the Municipal Assembly, Rui Marrachinho to the Guia Parish Council, and Filipe Rossa to the Ferreiras Council. The agent is the lawyer Augusto Lopes.
If he wins, what does Desidério Silva expect to find in the Albufeira Chamber, from which he left nine years ago, to occupy the presidency of the Algarve Tourism Region? "I hope to find a Chamber that is not doing as well as I left it," replied the candidate.
Among what is wrong, he highlighted the "departments [of the Chamber] in need of muscle intervention."
"I feel much more competent, knowledgeable and available now than when I left Albufeira," he added.
Desidério Silva will thus dispute the Albufeira City Council against current president José Carlos Rolo (PSD), who was its vice-president when, in 2012, eleven months before the end of what would have to be his third and last consecutive term ahead of the autarchy, Desiderius left for RTA.
In fact, Rolo has twice been president of the municipality of Albufeirense without ever having been the head of the list. The first time, he succeeded Desiderio, whose vice president he was, when he was elected to the RTA. From the second – the current term –, he succeeded Carlos Silva e Sousa, after his unexpected death in February 2018. Apparently, this is where José Carlos Rolo will finally be the PSD candidate for the presidency of the Chamber.
But Desidério's candidacy is not the only one dissident of the social-democratic area emerging in Albufeira. Abel Zua, commander of the Albufeira Volunteer Fire Department, a structure that is even financially supported by the municipality, has also expressed his intention to lead an independent movement to stand as a candidate in the elections that should take place next October.
This division into three candidacies – Rolo, Desidério and Zua – may benefit the PS, which should once again present as head of list the current councilor without portfolios, Ricardo Clemente. In the previous municipal elections, the socialists managed to elect three councilors, out of the seven that the Council of Albufeira has (including the president).
This time, if there is a dispersion of votes, will an ungovernable Chamber not be able to end up being elected? Desidério Silva believes that if he is elected president, as he hopes, even if he doesn't get a majority, he will have the capacity to "establish consensus". However, he stressed, "I don't believe that Albufeires have forgotten my ten years at the head of Albufeira Town Hall and the impulse we gave to the municipality".
In his speech to launch the candidacy, Desidério recalled the «25 years of my life dedicated to the public cause, where I embraced all the projects I proposed, whether in the associative movement, or in the presidency of the Albufeira Town Council, or in the presidency of the Algarve Tourism Region».
“The experience gained allows us to analyze things differently, and I understood that 25 years of hard work, with honesty and competence, should not be put on the shelf, because there is still so much to do!” he said.
Making a mea culpa, he admitted: «of course, not everything was perfect and there are things that, nowadays, would be done differently, but we are always in time to “clean up the edges”, improve and correct the things that did not go as well as expected in the terms of office spent as president of the Albufeira City Council».
In fact, at this level, the independent candidate stressed that “Albufeira needs a new dynamic, a more humane and supportive intervention, it needs above all to renew and reinvent its offer (tourism and beyond)”. And even in this area of Tourism, strongly shaken by the pandemic – Albufeira is being the most affected municipality in the whole Algarve, he pointed out in a conversation with the Sul Informação – it is necessary that the municipality traces “another course”, so that it “does not only have sun and beaches to offer”.
The presentation of the candidacy of the Independent Movement «Desidério por Albufeira», only for journalists and according to the DGS rules, was made outdoors, in a space overlooking Peneco beach, the Jardim Dr. Frutuoso da Silva, curiously a work by the candidate , when he was in charge of the municipality of Albufeires.
Click here for the full presentation speech
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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