Mayor of Lagoa calls foreigners to vote

With years of experience in local politics, Luís Encarnação believes that the participation of foreign residents in Portugal in the local elections is important for their integration, especially the ones that come for work and aid the local economy.

The Portugal News (TPN): CHEGA! is gaining a lot of supporters in Lagoa. How is the Partido Socialista (PS) here in Lagoa looking at the situation?

LE: First of all, with all the democratic humility, the people spoke, and, therefore, left a very clear message, and we have to accept, as it is evident, the principles of democracy, they are the pillars of PS, and the first conclusion is that we have to respect the will of the people. We are now in the phase of reflection, to understand what happened and understand why people voted for the Chega party. We are trying to understand why they are unhappy with the policies of recent times, making an internal reflection. We must understand if the discontent of those people who vote in Chega is regarding national policies or if it has something to do with local policies.

In Lagoa’s municipality, PS is fulfilling our mandate, the manifesto and the program that was elected by a large majority of Lagoa citizens, with more than 50% of the vote. We wanted to recover the economy after Covid-19 and still deal with the risks we had from Covid-19, which has been done. We had two goals such as replacing the distribution of water in the council and improving water efficiency. We are now replacing the pipelines. We just replaced three pipelines, the most important ones, those that lost the most water and we had the biggest breakage problems. Now we are paving the roads, as we always promised, after replacing the pipelines.

TPN: Could you describe the foreign community that resides in Lagoa?

LE: In my opinion, we have two different situations here, given the considerable foreign community in Lagoa. They are citizens who were not born in Lagoa, Algarve, or Portugal.

They chose Lagoa for its conditions, natural beauty, tranquillity, safety, gastronomy, and our wines, for the way the people of Lagoa like to live. I think they are perfectly integrated and chose Lagoa to live. Either because they are retired themselves, or because they have some business here, and I think these people are perfectly well integrated.

Then we have another type of foreign resident, the immigrants, who came to work for our hotel units, for the restaurants, in the companies that do the urban cleaning and the collection of urban waste. They are no longer from Europe; their majority are already from Asian countries.

TPN: How important is this community to the municipality?

LE: The residents, the foreigners in the Council of Lagoa are very important to us because they make up our community, they also come in some way to make that contribution to dynamise the local economy, in their majority, especially those who are from the Central and Northern Europe and more recently also from Canada and the United States and others, from other areas of the globe. They are mostly people who have a second home here, with a purchasing power above the average, and obviously, they are important to dynamise the local economy.

In the case of the most recent residents, the immigrants, who came here mainly to work, they are also important, because without them we would not have enough manpower to work in our hotel units, and enough manpower to work in urban cleaning and in the collection of urban waste and in agricultural activities, because we also have many here who work in activities related to agriculture.

TPN: Do you think that the Chega victory in national elections, in Lagoa, can affect how the immigrants are received by Lagoa’s citizens?

LE: So far, I have no records of any racist or xenophobic acts happening, but that is a concern, especially because of the humanistic values that we have to defend. It is necessary, and I hope so, to respect those who are here to work, who are here to help our economy, and who are important for our economy.

I think we should respect them, and we should integrate them into our community, even though I realise that there are other matters related to this issue, which I think are the ones that then arouse these acts and these reactions, which are those who do not come to work.

I understand these issues, but those who come to work and help our economy are welcome; therefore, I think there should be this concern to realise, to make this distinction, and to welcome those who are here to work.

TPN: What has the municipality done to welcome and integrate this foreign community?

LE: I think there is a natural integration here. We also try, for example, in our cultural program, to find here some shows, some events that are more for this community, that fit their cultural options, their musical options, trying to have here a versatile program, diversified, that takes into account not only what are the preferences of those who are already here, but also those who chose our territory to live.

We say with some pride that Lagoa is a cosmopolitan city, and it is this cosmopolitanism that also gives us this notoriety, and that makes this difference, and that also makes our area attractive.

We also have, through our Qualifica centre, Portuguese language courses for non-natives, in the sense of also helping their integration.

TPN: What is the importance of the vote of the foreign community for the local elections?

LE: It is very important because if they reside in our council, and in most of the cases they live here, more than half of the year, that is, every year, they have an effective presence in our local area, I think they should also participate in what are the decisions, starting from the choice of who will govern, of who will lead the decisions of the council. I think that those who live here, as long as they have the right to do so, should use their vote to help choose the best proposals for the development of the council.

TPN: Why is it so important for foreigners to have this active participation in elections?

LE: Because it is also an easier way to integrate, because if they participate in the electoral act, they are closer to integrating into what is our community and participating in the life of society. I think the vote is important for that because it is an active way of participating. It is also a feeling of belonging, and I belong to this community, and I participate in it.

Currently, the Deputy Editor at The Portugal News, Bruno G. Santos, is really interested in national politics. With a degree in Journalism and Communication, he also loves to write about different topics like Portuguese culture, society and other current affairs. Press card: 8463.