Carlos Moedas can continue without leaving a work that marks the memory of Lisbon residents, but there is one merit that no one can take away from him: the ability to repeatedly construct a narrative in which criticism, demands and responsibility rarely touch him.
Coins, due to the lack of scrutiny, is the politician to whom everything seems to be allowed. Surfing the wave of populism, he bases his speech on an implicit rejection of parties, seeking to place himself above them as an independent and unifying figure. Something that is not original: Cavaco Silva also tried to cultivate this image of supra-partisanship, which quickly collided with a reality that revealed the opposite, as he always acted as a reference for a party bloc.
Moedas follows the same script, but without institutional weight, without work done and with an obsessive dependence on the media construction of its image.
While proclaiming a distance from party logic, Moedas actively participates in the internal dynamics of his political space. He constantly moves in power disputes, sometimes to avoid being overtaken by Passos Coelho, sometimes to position himself against the leadership of Montenegro, sometimes in an attempt to influence PSD Lisbon. The inconsistency between discourse and practice is evident.
None of this would be particularly relevant if there wasn’t one unavoidable and worrying detail: Lisbon needs a president more concerned with the city’s problems than with views on TikTok.
Let’s move on to the facts. The supposed 17,000 jobs associated with the so-called unicorn factory remain without clear identification. Coins repeatedly avoids clarifying who these 17 thousand people are who would have been employed thanks to their unicorns.
The appointment of Mafalda Livermore, from Chega, to the CML Social Services raises serious doubts about a possible logic of exchanging favors to make political decisions viable. Furthermore, there is an understanding with Chega that was hidden from Lisbon residents, compromising democratic transparency. Once again, Moedas allows everything.
In parallel, there is a systematic appropriation of work that does not belong to it. Nurseries, health centers, schools, housing, gardens and large urban interventions are repeatedly presented as achievements of their own, even when they are the result of previous planning and investment. The General Drainage Plan is perhaps the most evident example of this political revisionism. Scrutiny? Non-existent or poor.
The performance reaches its peak in moments such as the handing over of the keys to Gebalis’ houses, transformed into true personal promotion events. Communication replaces truth and factuality, while municipal media are mobilized to reinforce a carefully constructed image.
Basically, a simple logic applies: good news is always appropriate, while bad news is systematically attributed to third parties. This pattern is not just a trait of political style, but a serious problem of public accountability.
Lisbon deserves more than that. It deserves scrutiny, coherence and truth.
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