Portugal’s PSD Sweeps Major Cities and Recaptures Municipal Helm

In an election night that signposts a shift in Portugal’s local power map, the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) has reclaimed the leadership of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) while also wresting control of several of the country’s largest city halls. The twin victories grant the party an influential voice in local-central negotiations and sharpen the contrast with the Socialist government in Lisbon.

A wave that started in town halls

Counting was still under way in smaller parishes when PSD officials began circulating internal tallies suggesting that Lisbon, Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Sintra and Cascais would all turn blue for the first time in years. By midnight, provisional data published by the Ministry of Internal Administration confirmed gains in the five urban centres that together account for nearly 2 M residents. Although formal figures will only be certified next week, early estimates point to margins ranging from 3 % in the capital to double-digit leads on the coast.

Why the ANMP presidency matters

The ANMP, headquartered in Coimbra, represents all 308 Portuguese municipalities in talks with the national government and the EU. It negotiates the distribution of structural funds, sets technical guidelines on urban planning and can veto certain regulatory changes. PSD councillor Marta Soares, a former mayor of Barcelos and the first woman to head the association, now takes the chair after eight years of Socialist stewardship. She will be flanked by vice-presidents drawn from Madeira, the Algarve and the interior, a line-up her team says will ensure “territorial balance” when €4.3 B in EU cohesion money is assigned later this year.

The political undercurrents

Observers see the local results as a stress test for Prime Minister António Costa’s minority administration. While municipal elections rarely mirror national contests, today’s outcome deprives the Socialists of high-profile urban stages and hands PSD mayors control over policing agreements, housing projects and public-transport companies that shape daily life for millions. Commentators on RTP compared the mood to 2001, when a similar conservative surge preceded a general-election upset twelve months later.

Opposition voices and coalition arithmetic

Within the left bloc, reactions were swift. Socialist campaign chief Duarte Cordeiro blamed low turnout—just 51 %—and warned that “fragmentation on the right will resurface once governing begins.” Left-wing alliance partners BE and CDU, both nursing losses in previously safe councils, called for an urgent strategy meeting to prevent what they labelled a “rollback of social policies” at municipal level. On the PSD side, leader Luís Montenegro spoke of “renewed confidence” and hinted at cross-party pacts on housing and climate adaptation but stopped short of outlining concrete proposals.

What changes for residents

Most immediate will be the budget revisions that accompany any handover of city hall executive boards. In Lisbon, the incoming team says it will audit current spending on bicycle lanes and reconsider property-tax discounts introduced during the pandemic. Porto’s mayor-elect pledged to renegotiate the public-private partnership that runs the city’s parking network. Further south, Cascais signalled the launch of a pilot project to cap short-term holiday rentals in historic quarters—an idea that could ripple into national housing debates.

The road ahead

All newly elected councils take office on 18 October. The PSD-led ANMP board meets one week later to prepare a position paper for the state budget hearings in Parliament. Topics on the agenda include decentralisation of health centres, a fresh tranche of EU recovery funds and compensation for wildfire-hit municipalities. Whether the momentum from Sunday’s local victories can be converted into national leverage will become clearer in the run-up to the 2026 legislative election, but for now the centre-right has regained an institutional headquarters and a string of urban strongholds that it had lost over the past decade.

Additional reporting by freelancers in Porto, Faro and Funchal