"Viseu's luck was that the PS never had a tight grip here"

" Viseu's good fortune was that the Socialist Party never held back. Our development is closely linked to this situation," said Fernando Ruas on Friday night during the public presentation of his candidacy.

At 76 years old, Fernando Ruas - who in 2021 returned to the position he had held between 1989 and 2013, winning 46.68% of the votes (five terms) - guaranteed that, after winning the elections on October 12, he will serve his last term, which he will serve until the end.

"It's enough time that I need to complete the cycle of extremely relevant and unrepeatable investments that I dreamed of for Viseu and that we have in our portfolio," he explained.

The social-democratic mayor did not appear concerned about the possible victory of socialist João Azevedo, current opposition councilor and who will face him for the second time, after obtaining 38.26% of the votes (four mandates) in the 2021 local elections.

"We have long realized that the one who claims to be our main adversary lives exclusively on 'sound bytes' that the fake Facebook profiles he sponsors feed," he criticized.

According to Fernando Ruas, during the PS Government, João Azevedo "always assumed the role of 'sidecar'", since he "only moved to make promises to citizens using the motorbikes of Government members who were willing to feed the deception".

"Normally the mountain would give birth to a mouse," he emphasized.

Fernando Ruas considered that it was due to the "persuasion and demanding capacity" of his executive that works such as those underway on Main Route 3 (so that it has four lanes between Coimbra and Viseu), the "irreversible decision to build the (new) Fagilde Dam" and the resolution of the high water supply problems were being carried out.

"There was one thing we would have liked to have reversed: the expenditure of several hundred thousand euros on studies that yielded nothing," he said.

Fernando Ruas stressed that "there are more things" that he has agreed with the Government to complete at the end of this cycle that "bother the socialists" and gave the example of the long-awaited radiotherapy center.

The public ceremony was attended by António Leitão Amaro, vice-president of the PSD's National Political Committee, who assured that Viseu will soon have "works that never went beyond the plaques", such as the radiotherapy center.

"If someone is unlucky enough to have cancer, they should go to Coimbra and be treated here. It's our priority, and we're doing everything we can to make that happen," the Minister of the Presidency assured.

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