From concern for the environment to “promoting entrepreneurship and innovation”, the Portuguese are competing for positions in English local authorities.
Concern for the environment and the desire to help the community or develop the region in which they live have led several Portuguese to present themselves as candidates in the local elections being held this Thursday in England.
Candidate of the local party Happiness for the parish [ward] Blenheim Park, Southend-on-Sea, southern England, Luis Miguel Lançós He begins by telling the Lusa agency that he has no political ambitions.
I am not a politician, I don’t even want to be elected, I don’t do any campaign. What I want is to help develop the region where I live,” he highlighted.
The candidacy, he explained, It was the way he found to try to influence local decision makers to support the project of creating a technology center in the city..
The idea arose after leaving London, where he had lived since 2007, for Southend during the Covid-19 pandemic to be close to the sea, but with easy access to the British capital.
In 2023, he left his job at a North American bank to launch a start up linked to artificial intelligence.
In the new city, he said, found a “defeatist speech” and an underused airportdespite the “potential to promote entrepreneurship and innovation” in sectors such as green aviation and space technology.
In Bristol, in the south-west of England, Moisés Santo is a candidate in the parish of Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston for the Green party.
Born in East Timor to a Portuguese mother and Timorese father, he has lived in the United Kingdom since 2006 and from the beginning was interested in contributing to the community, which now numbers around two thousand people.
He founded a Timorese association and a football team and has promoted English classes and help Timorese obtain driving licenses and improve their career prospects.
It was Holy Moses who He approached the British party with an interest in getting involved in local activities because they are concerned about the environment.but also for aligning with the leftist ideology “that helps people.”
“Landlords treat immigrants badly, it seems like they have no rights”he lamented, stating that he wants to improve housing conditions and increase the frequency of buses.
Deolinda Maria Eltringham She is also a candidate for the environmental party, but in the parish of Hitchin Bearton, in North Hertfordshire, about 60 kilometers north of London.
The Portuguese woman, born in Porto in 1959, grew up in Mozambique until she moved with her family to South Africa in 1975, after decolonization.
Married to a British man, she moved to Hitchin (United Kingdom) in 1986, where her scientific training and her concern about climate change led her to develop several initiatives linked to recycling and energy saving.
Last year she was declared “recycling queen” by Hertfordshire Life magazine. to prevent 22 tons of items, from pens to toothbrushes and various product packaging, from ending up in the trash.
Deolinda Eltringham is also an activist in the “Make Votes Matter” movement, which advocates replacing the first-past-the-post system with proportional representation in the United Kingdom.
“This is the biggest obstacle to true democratic representation in most of English politics”he defended.
In northeast London, Valdomiro Lourenco He is a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the parish of Hutton South, in the borough of Brentwood.
Upon arriving in the United Kingdom in 2015, this 54-year-old man from Coimbra claimed to have witnessed the impact of “Brexit” in terms of xenophobia and unemployment in the automotive sector, where he worked.
“I have since joined the ‘Lib Dems’ because I am pro-European and It is the only party that has a clearer position on the matter.“, he justified.
Even though Brentwood has a Liberal Democrat majority, Lourenço has little hope of winning over the current conservative mayors, so he has done little campaigning.
Security, the construction of sports spaces for young people and the management of public accounts have been some of the issues raised.
In the municipal elections this Thursday, around 2,600 seats will be voted on in 107 municipalities.
Local elections test British voters as legislative elections approach
Mayors will be elected in districts, metropolitan districts and unitary authorities, local authorities of different sizes and responsible for services such as garbage collection, green spaces, urbanization, road maintenance and schools.
England, the most populous region of the United Kingdom, has 317 local authorities, whose political representatives are elected in alternate years for four-year terms.
Polling stations will operate between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and some results should be announced in the early hours of the morning, but counting could continue throughout Friday and Saturday.
Source: Observadora
