More than a dozen former presidents are running for office again

Despite being fewer in number, the once-called "dinosaurs" of local power still exist and more than a dozen have already announced their candidacies for the elections on October 12 (candidacies can be submitted until August 18).

In Setúbal, former president Maria das Dores Meira , elected by the CDU (PCP/PEV coalition) in three consecutive terms, in 2009, 2013 and 2017, will run again for the presidency of the municipality of Setúbal in 2025, but now as an independent.

Despite being independent, Dores Meira received the support of the national PSD, which displeased the party's council.

With social-democratic support, Luís Filipe Menezes , former president of the PSD, is running again for Vila Nova de Gaia, a municipality he presided over for four terms (1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009), always with an absolute majority.

Menezes had already tried to become president again in 2013, this time in the Porto City Council, but lost the electoral battle to the current Porto president, the independent Rui Moreira.

In these same elections, in 2013, Nuno Cardoso , former mayor of Porto, who held the position replacing Fernando Gomes (PS), between 1999 and the end of 2021, was also defeated.

Nuno Cardoso is once again running for Porto, as an independent, for the "Thinking about Porto" movement.

Former Estremoz Mayor Luís Mourinha has already presented a new candidacy for the presidency of this municipality in the Évora district, which he led for 12 years, elected by the CDU, and another 10 by the Independent Movement for Estremoz (MIETZ), for which he will now run again.

Mourinha's last term was interrupted in 2019, when the court convicted him, with the additional penalty of loss of office, for the crime of malfeasance.

In Vagos (Aveiro district), Rui Cruz (PSD) is once again a candidate 12 years after handing over the baton to Silvério Regalado, currently Secretary of State for Local Administration.

Rui Cruz was president of the Vagos City Council from 2001 to 2013.

Alberto Souto , mayor of Aveiro between 1998 and 2005, for the PS, also former Deputy Secretary of State for Communications for this party, wants to return to the presidency of the municipality and is the socialist candidate.

Alberto's main opponent is his brother, Luís Souto, chosen as the PSD candidate to succeed the social democrat Ribau Esteves, the mayor who is leaving the municipality due to term limits.

For Ponte da Barca (Viana do Castelo district), the PS announced that it had chosen Vassalo Abreu , who presided over this municipality between 2005 and 2017, as its candidate.

The former mayor of Pedrógão Grande (Leiria), João Marques, is once again the PSD candidate for that municipality in the district of Leiria, where he served four terms as mayor, between 1997 and 2013, leaving the position due to the law on term limits.

Social Democrat Hélder Sousa e Silva was Mayor of Mafra from 2013 to 2024, when he resigned from his last term to take up the role of MEP.

Hélder Sousa e Silva, who led the Social Democratic Mayors, was chosen by the PSD to be a candidate for the Almada City Council in this year's elections.

The former mayor of Alcochete, Luís Miguel Franco (CDU), elected in 2005, 2009 and 2013, took a four-year break due to term limits, lost the local elections in this town in the district of Setúbal in 2021 and remained as a councilor.

Luís Franco is once again running for president in 2025 for the CDU, but this time for the Montijo City Council.

Rui Marques Luís (PSD) was mayor of Ponta do Sol, Madeira, in 2005, 2009 and 2013, having left the position in 2017 after having served three consecutive terms, and is now once again the head of the social-democratic list for the same Madeiran municipality.

João Azevedo , mayor of Mangualde between 2009 and 2019, when he left his mandate halfway to become a deputy, is once again the PS candidate for the Viseu Chamber, to which he already ran in 2021, but lost to the social democrat Fernando Ruas, also a prominent mayor, who then returned to the municipality he led between 1989 and 2013.

The previous mayor of Castelo Branco, José Augusto Alves , was not a "dinosaur", as he was mayor between 2020 and 2021 (when he replaced the socialist Luís Correia, who was sentenced to loss of office after signing two contracts with a company owned by his father).

José Augusto Alves, who was vice-president of the Albicastrense municipality between 2017 and 2020, is now going to the elections at the top of the list of the Sempre Por Todos coalition, which brings together the PSD, the CDS and the Sempre -- Independent Movement.

There are also two cases of "dinosaurs" who return "home" without having ceased to be mayors: The mayor of Évora, Carlos Pinto de Sá (CDU), is at the end of three consecutive terms in this municipality, the maximum permitted by law, and is once again the head of the CDU list for the Montemor-o-Novo City Council, which he had previously presided over between 1993 and 2013.

The other case is Vítor Proença , who can no longer run again for Alcácer do Sal, so in the next local elections he is the CDU candidate for the Santiago do Cacém Council, a municipality he led between 2001 and 2013.

In addition to former mayors who want to return to office, there are also cases of mayors who had other municipal responsibilities and who are now candidates again: one example is Paulo de Morais , who was vice-president of the Porto City Council, an independent candidate in the 2016 presidential elections and is now the PSD candidate for the Viana do Castelo City Council.

Read Also: PSD supports Maria das Dores Meira in Setúbal and Isaltino Morais in Oeiras