The 2021 Lisbon local election was held on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the Lisbon City Council.
In a major upset, Carlos Moedas, the candidate of the centre-right New Times coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was elected Mayor of Lisbon. The coalition managed to win with 34.3 percent of the votes and 7 councilors.
Incumbent mayor Fernando Medina, candidate of the Socialist Party (PS) running in alliance with LIVRE, lost his reelection bid, an office he had hold since 2015 and which had been held by PS since 2007. PS lost almost 10 percent of the votes compared with the previous election, with Medina labeling the defeat as "personal".
The Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) presented former MEP João Ferreira as their candidate, registering a slight electoral growth to 10.5 percent, the best result for CDU since 2005, and guaranteeing two Communist councilors. The Left Bloc, which presented Beatriz Gomes Dias as a candidate for mayor, managed to keep their sole seat in the municipal council, despite a slight drop in votes. People-Animals-Nature, Chega, and Liberal Initiative failed to elect any councilors.
Background In the 2017 election, the Socialist Party led by Fernando Medina, won with a comfortable advantage over the opposition parties, although losing its absolute majority. The center-right wing alliance led by Assunção Cristas' CDS - Peoples Party obtained a historic result for the chamber, surpassing 20 percent of the votes and electing 4 councilors. The Social Democratic Party, which had Teresa Leal Coelho as its candidate, had its worst result in history in Lisbon, finishing in third place, with just over 11 percent of the votes and 2 councilors, a far cry from PS and CDS.
The Unitary Democratic Coalition obtained 9.6 percent, winning 2 councilors and the Left Bloc obtained its best municipal result in the city, managing to win 1 councilor with 7.1 percent and entering in a coalition with the Socialists.
Electoral system Each party or coalition must present a list of candidates. The winner of the most voted list for the municipal council is automatically elected mayor, similar to first-past-the-post (FPTP). The lists are closed and the seats in each municipality are apportioned according to the D'Hondt method. Unlike in national legislative elections, independent lists are allowed to run.
Parties and candidates Party/Coalition Politicalposition Candidate 2017 result Votes (%) Seats ML More Lisbon Centre-left Fernando Medina 42.0% NT New Times Centre-right Carlos Moedas 31.8% CDU Unitary Democratic Coalition Left-wingto far-left João Ferreira9.5% BE Left Bloc Left-wingto far-left Beatriz Gomes Dias 7.1% PAN People Animals Nature Centre-left Manuela Gonzaga 3.0% NC We, the Citizens! Centre-right Sofia Afonso Ferreira 0.6% E Rise Up Far-right João Patrocínio 0.5% PDR Democratic Republican Party Centre Bruno Fialho 0.3% IL Liberal Initiative Centre-right to right-wing Bruno Horta Soares CH Enough! Right-wingto far-right Nuno Graciano VP Volt Portugal Centre to centre-left Tiago Matos Gomes STL We are all Lisbon Right-wing Ossanda Liber
Campaign period Issues In June 2021, it was revealed that Lisbon City Hall had voluntarily sent, since 2012, personal data of dissidents from authoritarian regimes living in Lisbon to the respective embassies of these countries, mainly Russia, in what was called the Russiagate scandal. Mayor Fernando Medina said he was unaware of these actions by City Hall, saying it was a regrettable mistake and that he was sorry. Lisbon City Hall was later ordered to pay fines of several thousand euros.
Just a few days before election day, Sábado magazine also revealed that the Socialist Party (PS) parish president of Arroios, Margarida Martins, used parish services for personal expenses. A criminal investigation was later opened.
Party slogans Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs ML « Mais Lisboa » "More Lisbon" NT « Novos Tempos »« Lisboa pode ser muito mais do que imaginas » "New Times""Lisbon can be much more than you think" CDU « Por uma Lisboa com vida » "For a Lisbon with life" BE « Uma cidade em comum » "A city in common" PAN « Lisboa nas tuas mãos » "Lisbon in your hands " IL « 1 vereador liberal faz toda a diferença » "1 liberal councillor makes all the difference" CH « Chega. Lisboa sem Corrupção » "Enough. Lisbon without corruption"
Candidates' debates 2021 Lisbon local election debates Date Organisers Moderator(s) ML NT CDU BE PAN IL CH NC E PDR VP STL Refs 2 Sep 2021 SIC Notícias Clara de SousaPPPPPPPNNNNN 7 Sep 2021 TVI, TVI24 Sara PintoPPNNNNNNNNNN 9 Sep 2021 Antena 1 Natália CarvalhoPPPPPPPPPPPP 15 Sep 2021 RTP1, RTP3 António José TeixeiraPPPPPPPPPPPP
Opinion polling
Polling firm/Link Fieldwork date Sample size PSL PSDCDSPPMMPTA CDU BE PAN IL CH Lead 2021 local election 26 Sep 2021 33.334.310.56.22.74.24.44.41.0 CESOP–UCP 26 Sep 2021 4,146 31–3532–36 10–13 5–7 2–4 3–5 3–5 2–91 ICS/ISCTE 26 Sep 2021 8,15931.3–36.3 30.2–35.2 10.4–13.4 5.7–8.7 1.8–3.8 3.2–6.2 2.4–5.4 1.6–4.61.1 Pitagórica 26 Sep 2021 6,20632.6–38.6 29.3–35.3 6.6–12.6 4.2–8.2 1.0–5.0 3.3–7.3 1.9–5.9 2.1–6.13.3–3.7 Intercampus 26 Sep 2021 6,40632.0–36.4 31.2–35.6 10.1–13.7 5.5–8.5 1.6–4.6 2.9–5.9 1.6–4.6 2.5–3.30.8 Pitagórica 15–21 Sep 2021 600 40.6 33.1 7.6 4.7 3.2 3.2 2.1 5.57.5 CESOP–UCP 16–20 Sep 2021 1,292 37 28 11 7 3 5 3 69 Pitagórica 30 Aug–4 Sep 2021 600 39.8 32.6 8.5 6.8 3.8 3.0 2.8 2.77.2 Intercampus 25–30 Aug 2021 642 45.2 27.0 9.7 8.5 1.8 2.1 3.2 2.518.2 Eurosondagem 23–26 Aug 2021 2,225 38.6 26.9 7.7 6.3 3.3 6.3 4.8 6.111.7 Aximage 14–21 Aug 2021 792 51 27 9 4 2 2 2 324 ICS/ISCTE 3–18 Jul 2021 803 42 31 6 8 3 2 4 411 Intercampus 8–13 Apr 2021 611 46.6 25.7 7.1 6.6 0.5 2.3 6.1 5.120.92019 legislative election6 Oct 2019 36.533.17.09.14.14.11.44.73.42019 EP election26 May 201933.931.17.010.76.62.0 8.72.8 2017 local election 1 Oct 2017 42.031.89.67.13.0 6.510.2
Results
Municipal Council
| colspan="11" style="text-align:center;" | |- ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±pp swing ! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Councillors |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|± |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#2A52BE align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / Alliance / MPT / PPM |83,185||34.27||2.5||7||1 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF3366 align="center" | |align=left|Socialist / LIVRE |80,907||33.33||8.7||7||1
|25,550||10.53||1.0||2||0
|15,057||6.20||0.9||1||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#202056 align="center" | |align=left|Chega |10,730||4.42||||0|| |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#00ADEF align="center" | |align=left|Liberal Initiative |10,213||4.21||||0||
|6,625||2.73||0.3||0||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=Purple align="center" | |align=left|Volt Portugal |1,016||0.42||||0|| |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" | |align=left|We are all Lisbon (STL) |864||0.36||||0|| |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=gold align="center" | |align=left|We, the Citizens! |494||0.20||0.4||0||0
|338||0.14||0.4||0||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=black align="center" | |align=left|Democratic Republican |319||0.13||0.2||0||0 |- |colspan=2 width="330" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|235,298 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|96.93 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.1 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|17 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |4,823||1.99||0.6||colspan=3 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |2,622||1.08||0.4 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|242,743 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||476,050||50.99||0.1 |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source: Lisbon 2021 election results
Municipal Assembly
| colspan="11" style="text-align:center;" | |- ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±pp swing ! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Seats |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|± |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#2A52BE align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / Alliance / MPT / PPM |75,616||31.15||0.9||17||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF3366 align="center" | |align=left|Socialist / LIVRE |74,765||30.80||6.9||17||5
|26,890||11.08||0.9||6||0
|18,528||7.63||0.8||4||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#00ADEF align="center" | |align=left|Liberal Initiative |14,447||5.95||||3|| |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#202056 align="center" | |align=left|Chega |13,004||5.36||||3||
|8,573||3.53||0.8||1||1 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=Purple align="center" | |align=left|Volt Portugal |1,401||0.58||||0|| |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" | |align=left|We are all Lisbon (STL) |1,069||0.44||||0||
|438||0.18||0.4||0||0 |- |colspan=2 width="330" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|234,731 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|96.70 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.1 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|51 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |5,337||2.20||0.7||colspan=3 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |2,671||1.10||0.4 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|242,739 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||476,740||50.92||0.2 |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source: Lisbon 2021 election results
Parish Assemblies
|- class="unsortable" !rowspan=2|Parish!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2|TotalS |- class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 | ML !colspan=2 | NT !colspan=2 | CDU !colspan=2 | BE !colspan=2 | IL !colspan=2 | CH !colspan=2 | PAN !colspan=2 | IND |- | style="text-align:left;" | Ajuda | style="background:#FF3366; color:white;"| 51.5 | 8 | 15.9 | 2 | 13.6 | 2 | 6.5 | 1 | 3.6
| 5.5
| colspan="4" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Alcântara | style="background:#FF3366; color:white;"| 53.7 | 8 | 18.8 | 3 | 9.3 | 1 | 5.3
| 6.2 | 1 | 3.8
| colspan="4" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Alvalade | 28.6 | 6 | style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;"| 33.2 | 7 | 8.6 | 2 | 6.4 | 1 | 6.4 | 1 | 4.2 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 5.0 | 1 | 19 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Areeiro | 25.9 | 4 | style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;"| 42.6 | 7 | 7.7 | 1 | 5.8
| 7.0 | 1 | 4.6
| 3.4
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Arroios | 23.8 | 5 | style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;"| 29.0 | 6 | 12.5 | 3 | 10.7 | 2 | 5.5 | 1 | 4.2 | 1 | 5.4 | 1 | 3.6
| 19 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Avenidas Novas | 26.8 | 5 | style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;"| 43.0 | 9 | 6.9 | 1 | 5.8 | 1 | 9.1 | 2 | 4.8 | 1