Isaltino in the ANMP presidency? No thanks

Although it is not necessary for anyone else to say it, it is important not to hide the obvious: the PSD was the clear winner of the municipal elections on October 12th. Solo or using center-right coalitions, the Social Democrats not only came to lead the five most populous municipalities in the country – the municipality with the most inhabitants governed by the PS is Loures and numerous treaties have already been written about this subject – but they were also the ones who received the preference of the Portuguese in the largest number of municipal councils.

Thanks to the result obtained two weeks ago, the best in local elections since 2009, Luís Montenegro managed to return to the party the leadership of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), which had been under the control of the PS for 12 years. Faced with this fact and given the rawness of the numbers – the PSD, alone, with the help of the IL, the CDS, the PAN or other almost non-existent forces, reached 136 local leaders -, Miguel Relvas, in the usual commentary space on CNN, put forward two names for the presidency of the ANMP.

The former Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs referred to these two hypotheses as personalities with political weight, who know the State machinery from the inside and who have already had responsibilities in the country and also claimed that both were beginning their last term at the head of their respective municipal executives. He alluded to Pedro Santana Lopes (who will start the second consecutive four-year period in Figueira da Foz, with, if he so understands and if the people validate it through the vote, a third one ahead) and to Isaltino Morais, who is about to begin his final term in Oeiras.

Miguel Relvas’ argument seemed quite reasonable to me, especially in the part where he considered, as I and so many others have written about matters central to the country’s future, that victory has to serve something – and not to perpetuate power for power’s sake, something to which the current PSD seems addicted.

There are reforms that, in fact, lack scale and leaders, national or local, who have political stature and a less parochial vision of Public Administration and the territory. Basically, the local authority, the inter-municipal communities and the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto need less vices, less small farms, less boys and less absurd expenses. They demand, instead, more planning, fewer party officials, more medium and long-term vision and, above all, more rationality and transparency in the management of public affairs, that is, what comes from the sweat of each one of us.

Precisely for these reasons, and not ignoring the very worthy work he has already carried out in Oeiras and not knowing whether he himself is available to take on such functions, there is little warning that the PSD makes the mistake of proposing or supporting any candidacy for the ANMP Board of Directors that has Isaltino Morais as head of the list.

Once the model mayor of the Social Democrats and today acclaimed by the TikTOk crowd and by many activists who sit in newspaper and television newsrooms, Isaltino Morais represents a way of being in politics that, although the people of Oeirense are rewarding, is far from healthy. Between the pharaonic works, as propagandistic as they are useless, the nebulous relations with Mozambique with municipal companies mixed in, the defense of its good name using council resources for that purpose, the adjudications that continue to be subject to judicial scrutiny or the unseemly contracts between the Chamber of Oeiras and a company belonging to its eldest daughter, there is too much media smoke for, at the very least, there not to be a few sparks of political immorality.

In terms of ethics when holding public office, Luís Montenegro has had plenty of reasons (and responsibilities) to be concerned and to raise the bar he sets for himself. With the ANMP leadership at his mercy, he will have a small opportunity not to add fuel to his own fire.

Communication consultant