Far-Right Enters Sintra Council: Culture, Water and Transport at Stake

Lisbon commuters woke up to an altered political landscape in Sintra. The new mayor, Marco Almeida, sealed a governing deal that brings Chega into the municipal executive, a move he frames as respect for the popular vote and critics brand as normalising the far-right. Two of the 11 portfolios now sit with Chega councillors, while the coalition partner Iniciativa Liberal breaks ranks and the Socialist opposition prepares for a bruising four-year term.

A pact forged from arithmetic, not ideology

The October polls left Sintra’s chamber evenly split: five seats for the Socialists, four for Almeida’s centre-right ticket and one each for Chega and the CDU. Running a council of Portugal’s second-most-populous municipality without a majority would have tied the mayor’s hands on everything from zoning licenses to social housing budgets. By ceding the culture and sports dossiers to Chega, Almeida claims he has converted numerical deadlock into a “stable, plural executive”. His justification is blunt: in a democracy “there are no second-class votes”.

Fault-lines inside the winning slate

That calculation carries a price. The national directorate of Iniciativa Liberal withdrew political confidence from its own councillor, Eunice Baeta, hours after the agreement became public. Although Baeta keeps her seat, the party says the local branch defied an internal directive that forbids executive pacts with Chega. The PAN, the third leg of Almeida’s electoral coalition, also distanced itself, insisting the decision belongs solely to the PSD mayor. Behind closed doors, moderates worry the episode could erode centrist support across the Lisbon metropolitan area in 2026.

Socialist counter-attack and left-wing backlash

For the PS, still smarting from losing Sintra after 12 straight years, the deal is political oxygen. Ana Mendes Godinho, who headed the Socialist ticket, castigated the mayor for handing “the keys of municipal power to the extreme-right”. The Bloco de Esquerda and Livre echoed that line, accusing Almeida of giving institutional legitimacy to rhetoric they describe as hostile to migrants and minorities. Left-leaning councillors promise to scrutinise every spending decision that passes through Chega’s new portfolios.

National reverberations inside the PSD

At party headquarters on Lisbon’s Rua de São Caetano à Lapa, the leadership of the PSD struck a cautious note: the agreement is labeled a local matter, yet it lands during delicate negotiations on a national budget where Chega’s parliamentary votes may prove decisive. Analysts see Sintra as a test case for whether centre-right forces can tap far-right support without alienating moderate voters. Opinion polls released over the weekend show a slight dip in PSD approval among urban independents but an uptick inside outer-ring municipalities with high commuter populations.

What changes on the ground in Sintra

Beyond the political theatre, Sintrenses now face a council in which heritage protection, sports infrastructure and local festivals will be co-shaped by Chega aldermen. Almeida keeps strategic levers—urban planning, environment, European funds—but opponents argue that even soft-power departments can shape the municipality’s cosmopolitan image. The first post-agreement meeting on 7 November assigned seats on inter-municipal companies, meaning Chega gains a voice on water supply and public-transport governance affecting 380,000 residents.

A roadmap into 2026 and beyond

Whether Almeida’s gamble normalises far-right participation or collapses under ideological strain will be watched far beyond the foothills of the Serra de Sintra. Next autumn, Cascais, Oeiras and Loures all elect new councils under similar fragmented conditions. If the Sintra formula delivers smoother budgeting and visible public-works progress, centre-right mayors across Portugal could replicate it. Should cultural flashpoints erupt, however, the episode may instead harden a nationwide firewall against Chega. For now, the only certainty is that every verdict—positive or otherwise—will be rendered by the same voters whose ballots the mayor insists carry equal weight.