Candidate Emanuel Vieira arrives for the Estarreja City Council

Emanuel Vieira is the Chega candidate for mayor of Estarreja, in the Aveiro district, in the local elections on October 12, a party source reported on Thursday.

Speaking to Lusa, the 31-year-old candidate said his candidacy was “focused on improving municipal management, transparency, combating corruption and revitalizing the municipality.”

The Chega candidate promises, if elected, to “combat mismanagement and ensure transparency and responsible use of taxes.”

"We also want to ensure that European and national funds are directed towards improving the population's quality of life," he said.

Health is one of Emanuel Vieira's concerns, and he says he will fight to ensure that services at Visconde de Salreu Hospital are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to improve the physical conditions of the hospital.

"A hospital support network needs to be created in the region to prevent hospitals in Aveiro and Coimbra from becoming overwhelmed, allowing for closer access to healthcare and potentially saving lives," he argues.

Housing is another concern, and Emanuel Vieira proposes creating more support for the renovation of dilapidated properties, "including tax incentives (IMI) and support for the installation of renewable energy."

“Streamlining and reducing bureaucracy in the documentation and licensing processes for the construction or reconstruction of housing, which currently take months or years, is another of its goals.

"The municipality should be a regulator and facilitator of private investment, not a direct entrepreneur," the candidate states, reserving for the municipality the role of "boosting the local economy by attracting visitors, boosting restaurants, shops, and commerce in general," which is "very affected" and "declining."

“We need to support local businesses that are struggling to stay open and hire employees,” he says.

Emanuel Vieira points out an urgent project: “building a municipal kennel to manage the problem of stray animals.”

In addition to Emanuel Vieira ( Chega ), Marisa Macedo ( Estarreja Mais Forte movement ), Manuel Almeida ( PS ), the current president of the municipality, Isabel Simões Pinto ( PSD / CDS-PP ), and Fernando Saramago ( CDU ) are running for the Estarreja Chamber.

In the 2021 local elections, the PSD ran in coalition with the CDS and obtained 52.31% of the votes and four mandates, and the PS won 33.45% of the voters and three mandates, with the third most voted coalition being the PCP-PEV (CDU), with 05.46% of the votes, without obtaining any mandate in the municipal executive.

If you have a story you'd like to share about irregularities in your municipality, please fill out this anonymous form .