Ana Mendes Godinho says the legislative system makes it difficult to respond to people

Ana Mendes Godinho was speaking at the PS National Municipal Convention, which took place today in Coimbra, in a panel that, according to the program, would also include the participation of, among others, the former Minister of Finance and former Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, but who due to an unforeseen event was unable to attend.

The Sintra candidate argued that "living conditions have worsened" and, 50 years later, Portugal has "a legislative system, often in place, that hinders the ability to respond to people."

According to the former Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security, "the welfare state is often in crisis because we are unable to truly respond to people with the mechanisms we have created. And we have to accept this."

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, a time when "there was no time for the complexity of bureaucracy," he asserted that "we live in a decisive time, in which what is at stake is whether we have the courage to admit that there are problems, but also that we have solutions." “We need a revolution in response capacity,” he concluded.

Throughout his speech, he also expressed concern that there was a “traditionally centrist democratic party that has now appropriated the far-right agenda.”

According to Ana Mendes Godinho, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) “no longer has red lines and has laid a red carpet for Chega to enter local government.” "If we allow the PSD to ally itself with Chega in the chambers, we're all rolling out the red carpet for them to enter government," he said.

Coimbra City Council candidate Ana Abrunhosa, also present on the panel, criticized the current Coimbra government, accusing the mayor of “not fulfilling 80%” of the political program.

The current mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, elected by the Juntos Somos Coimbra coalition (PSD/CDS/NC/PPM/A/R/V), "defended 112 measures because he called 112, the emergency number. Since he didn't comply with 80% of them, he now claims to have implemented an eight-year program," he criticized. "He didn't deliver because structural changes aren't promised for four years. The promise is just the beginning," said the candidate for the Avançar Coimbra coalition (PS/Livre/PAN and the Cidadãos por Coimbra movement).

In 2021, José Manuel Silva stated that the number of 112 proposals for the municipality was not a coincidence, but rather the result of what the coalition considered an “urgency” in changing the municipality's direction.

That same year, the mayor said he did not expect to serve more than two terms if re-elected in 2025, considering that "an eight-year term is enough for a person to exhaust, in a good way, their creativity at the helm of an institution."

"If I meet the expectations of the population and my own expectations, if I can do a good job – not alone, but with the team – I anticipate being able to run again in four years and do an eight-year cycle," he told Lusa news agency at the time.

Ana Abrunhosa took advantage of the panel discussion to argue that "local authorities are those with the skills, the best tools, and the best organization to work on social cohesion and territorial cohesion," highlighting the "abysmal difference" between the Socialist Party (PS) and local government.

The importance of local authorities was reinforced by the candidate for president of the Évora City Council for the Socialist Party, Carlos Zorrinho, when he stated that “the only alternative to combating populist discourse is proximity of response”.