The attempt by the Socialist Party (PS) leader and Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, to gain more weight among the socialists in this weekend’s 19 federal elections failed. Pedro Nuno Santos saw three presidents of federations close to him being reelected, but he was unable to elect any new candidate, maintaining the domination of “costismo” under the internal current that leads the party.
In the antechamber of the national Congress of the PS, postponed to the year due to the pandemic, this weekend’s internal elections served to cement the leadership of António Costa. The two names close to Pedro Nuno Santos who were among the candidates for the presidency of the 19 district federations – the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Rebelo, and the ex-deputy João Portugal – did not gather enough votes to be elected.
João Paulo Rebelo, candidate for the district federation of Viseu, lost the elections to deputy José Rui Cruz by a short margin: 1,036 votes against 1,164 votes. João Portugal lost in Coimbra to Nuno Moita, mayor of Condeixa-a-Nova, who won with about 62% of the votes compared to 38% of the former deputy.
Pedro Nuno Santos managed, nonetheless, to maintain support for his leftmost internal current in Lisbon, Braga and Aveiro, with the re-election of Duarte Cordeiro, Joaquim Barreto and Jorge Vultos Sequeira, respectively.
In the Federation of the Urban Area of Lisbon (FAUL), Duarte Cordeiro was re-elected for a second term with 95% of the votes. Joaquim Barreto obtained reelection in Braga with 2,200 votes, against 1,669 votes obtained by Ricardo Costa and Jorge Sequeira, who succeeded Pedro Nuno Santos as president of the district federation of Aveiro, was reelected without opponent and with 96% of the votes.
The influence of “pedronunistas” within the party remains thus without changes in the the status quo. Pedro Nuno Santos and Fernando Medina are two of the names identified as possible successors to António Costa in the leadership of the PS. In an interview with ‘Renascença’, at the beginning of July, the President of the PS, Carlos César, came to say, however, that would-be successors “will have to wait a long time”.
“If today there is a reality that not only the PS, but the Portuguese in general are confronted with, it is with the quality and clarification of António Costa’s leadership”, said Carlos César at the time.
The general secretary of the PS, António Costa, saluted everyone who participated in the elections and argued that they contributed to “affirming the wealth of pluralism and the diversity of opinions” in the PS. “This is the strength of our internal democracy and that makes our unit the mainstay of a commitment to service the country and all of our local and regional communities”, maintained the socialist leader.
Of the 19 district PS federations that went to vote between Friday and Saturday, only nine changed leadership: Nélson Brito (Baixo Alentejo), Vítor Pereira (Castelo Branco), Nuno Moita (Coimbra), Luís Dias (Évora), Alexandre Lote (Guarda), Walter Chicharro (Leiria), Ricardo Pinheiro (Portalegre), Hugo Costa (Santarém) and José Rui Cruz (Viseu).
In the remaining 10, the previous leaders renewed their mandate: Luís Graça (Algarve), Jorge Vultos Sequeira (Aveiro), Joaquim Barreto (Braga), Jorge Gomes (Bragança) Duarte Cordeiro (Federation of Lisbon Urban Area – FAUL), Carlos Bernardes (Western Regional Federation – FRO), Manuel Pizarro (Porto), António Mendes (Setúbal), Miguel Alves (Viana do Castelo) and Francisco Rocha (Vila Real).
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