2025 Sintra local election

Main article: 2025 Portuguese local elections

2025 Sintra local elections

← 2021 12 October 2025
All 11 Councillors in the Sintra City Council 6 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	50.0% 9.9 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Marco Almeida Ana Mendes Godinho Rita Matias Party PSD PS CH Alliance Always with the People of Sintra[a] The People, Always[b] Last election 3 seats (VCS)[c] 5 seats, 35.3% 1 seat, 9.1% Seats won 4 4 3 Seat change 0 1 2 Popular vote 55,052 51,501 38,020 Percentage 33.9% 31.7% 23.4% Swing 0.4 pp 3.6 pp 14.3 pp
Mayor before election Basílio Horta PS Elected mayor Marco Almeida PSD

The 2025 Sintra local election was held on 12 October 2025 to elect the members for Sintra City Council, Sintra Municipal Assembly and the city's 11 parish assemblies.

Incumbent Mayor Basílio Horta, from the Socialist Party (PS), was ineligible for a fourth term.^[1] Former Minister of Labour Ana Mendes Godinho was chosen as the candidate of the PS, in a coalition with LIVRE (L) and supported by Volt Portugal (VP),^[2][3] while former Deputy Mayor Marco Almeida ran for the third time, this time with the support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Liberal Initiative (IL) and People Animals Nature (PAN).^[4] Meanwhile, Chega (CH) presented the leader of Chega Youth, Rita Matias, as its candidate.^[5]

CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) broke away with the PSD, after disagreements regarding the lists and the inclusion of the Liberal Initiative, and will contest the election in a coalition with the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) and the National Democratic Alternative (ADN), with local party councillor Maurício Rodrigues as mayoral candidate.^[6] The Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) repeated their 2021 mayoral candidate and local party councillor Pedro Ventura.^[7]

In his 3rd try to reach the office of mayor of Sintra, Marco Almeida (PSD/IL/CDS) was successful, winning nearly 34% of the votes and electing 4 councillors. The PS/LIVRE coalition was close behind, gathering 32% of the voted and also electing the same number of councillors as the PSD led-coalition, four. Chega increased to 23% of the voted and elected 3 councillors. CDU lost its representation in Sintra municipal council for the first time in democracy.^[8] Turnout increased with 50% of all registered voters casting a ballot.

Background

Incumbent Mayor Basílio Horta, from the Socialist Party (PS), won a third and final term, with 35.3% of the votes and electing five seats, losing its absolute majority. The coalition between PSD, CDS–PP and their allies, led by Ricardo Baptista Leite, got 27.5% of the votes and elected 4 seats.^[9]

Meanwhile, the Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU), led by Pedro Ventura, managed to hold onto its single councillor, despite a small decrease to 9.0%, while Chega (CH) elected Nuno Afonso as city councillor and got 9.1% of the votes.^[9] Nuno Afonso would go on to leave Chega in January 2023 and remained as an Independent councillor.^[10]

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.^[11][12]

Parties and candidates

Party/Coalition					Political position	Candidate	2021 result		Ref.
							Votes (%)	Seats
	APS[b] The People, Always (As Pessoas, Sempre)		PS	Socialist Party Partido Socialista	Centre-left	Ana Mendes Godinho	35.3%	5 / 11	[13][14] [3]
			L	FREE LIVRE	Center-left to left-wing		—	—
	SCS Always with the People of Sintra (Sempre com os Sintrenses)		PAN	People Animals Nature Pessoas-Animais-Natureza	Syncretic	Marco Almeida	3.3%	0 / 11	[15][4]
			IL	Liberal Initiative Iniciativa Liberal	Centre-right to right-wing		2.7%	0 / 11
			PPD/PSD	Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata	Center-right		27.5%	3 / 11
	PSANC[d] For Sintra, Our Home (Por Sintra, A Nossa Casa)		CDS–PP	CDS – People's Party CDS – Partido Popular	Center-right to right-wing	Maurício Rodrigues		1 / 11	[6] [16] [17]
			PPM	People's Monarchist Party Partido Popular Monárquico	Right-wing			0 / 11
			ADN	National Democratic Alternative[e] Alternativa Democrática Nacional	Far-right			0 / 11
	CH	Enough! Chega!			Far-right	Rita Matias	9.1%	1 / 11	[5]
	CDU	Unitary Democratic Coalition Coligação Democrática Unitária PCP, PEV			Left-wing to far-left	Pedro Ventura	9.0%	1 / 11	[7]
	BE	Left Bloc Bloco de Esquerda			Left-wing to far-left	Tânia Russo	5.8%	0 / 11	[18]
	ND	New Right Nova Direita			Right-wing	Júlio Gourgel Ferreira	—	—	[19]

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance		Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	APS	« As Pessoas, Sempre »	"The People, Always"	[20]
	SCS	« Sempre com os Sintrenses »	"Always with the People of Sintra"	[21]
	CH	« Sintra na Linha »	"Sintra in Line"	[22]
	CDU	« Presta Contas »	"Accountability"	[23]
	PSANC	« Por Sintra, A Nossa Casa »	"For Sintra, Our Home"	[24]
	BE	« Sintra + Solidária e Sustentável »	"Sintra + Solidarity and Sustainable"	[25]

Candidates' debates

2025 Sintra local election debates
Date	Organisers	Moderator(s)	P  Present[f]    NI  Not invited   I  Invited    A  Absent invitee
			APS Godinho	SCS Almeida	CH Matias	CDU Ventura	PSANC Rodrigues	BE Russo	Refs
16 Sep 2025	SIC Notícias	Nelma Serpa Pinto	P	P	P	P	P	P	[26]
22 Sep 2025	RTP3	Luísa Bastos	P	P	P	P	P	P	[27]

Opinion polling

  Exit poll

Polling firm/Link	Fieldwork date	Sample size	APS		SCS			PSANC			CH	CDU	BE	ND	O	Lead
			PS	L	PAN	IL	PSD	CDS	PPM	ADN
2025 local election	12 Oct 2025	—	31.7 4		33.9 4			2.1 0			23.4 3	4.6 0	1.6 0	0.5 0	2.2	2.2
CESOP–UCP	12 Oct 2025	4,134	32–36 4/5		33–37 4/5			1–2 0			19–22 2/3	4–6 0	1–2 0	0–1 0	2–4	1
ICS/ISCTE/ Pitagórica	12 Oct 2025	5,679	30.4–35.4 3/5		32.1–37.3 3/5			1.1–3.1 0/1			19.4–23.6 2/4	3.6–6.6 0/1	1.0–3.0 0			1.7
Intercampus	12 Oct 2025	5,653	30.4–34.4 3/5		33.8–37.8 4/6			0.0–3.7 0/1			19.3–23.3 1/3	3.2–7.2 0/1	0.0–4.0 0/1		0.0–3.6	3.4
Aximage	17–23 Sep 2025	508	35.0 4		31.9 4			1.1 0			21.9 3	6.8 0	1.1 0	—	2.2 0	3.1
Pitagórica	13–18 Sep 2025	500	30.3 4		32.1 4			1.6 0			24.5 3	5.5 0	2.1 0	0.3 0	3.6	1.8
ICS/ISCTE	3–14 Sep 2025	803	32 4		30 4			2 0			28 3	3 0	1 0	1 0	3	2
Aximage	11–22 Jul 2025	502	39.5 5		2.2 0	38.2 5		0.3 0			11.3 1	2.3 0	2.9 0	—	3.3 0	1.3
2025 Legislative election	18 May 2025	—	23.8 (3)	6.0 (0)	2.1 (0)	6.5 (1)	24.8 (3)		0.1 (0)	1.3 (0)	26.1 (4)	3.1 (0)	2.5 (0)	0.2 (0)	3.7 (0)	1.3
2024 EP election	9 Jun 2024	—	32.9 (5)	4.6 (0)	1.8 (0)	9.6 (1)	24.2 (3)			1.8 (0)	13.1 (2)	4.5 (0)	5.1 (0)	0.2 (0)	2.4 (0)	8.7
2024 Legislative election	10 Mar 2024	—	28.8 (4)	4.6 (0)	2.9 (0)	5.9 (1)	22.5 (3)			1.5 (0)	21.2 (3)	3.3 (0)	5.4 (0)	0.2 (0)	3.9 (0)	6.3
2022 Legislative election	30 Jan 2022	—	44.0 (7)	1.9 (0)	2.3 (0)	6.3 (0)	20.7 (3)	1.3 (0)	—	0.3 (0)	9.7 (1)	4.7 (0)	5.3 (0)	—	3.5 (0)	23.3
2021 local election	26 Sep 2021	—	35.3 5	—	3.3 0	2.7 0	27.5 4				9.1 1	9.0 1	5.8 0	—	7.3 0	7.8

Results

Municipal Council

Summary of the 12 October 2025 Sintra City Council elections results

4 4 3
Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Councillors
					Total	±
	PSD / IL / PAN	55,052	33.86	0.4	4	0
	Socialist / LIVRE	51,501	31.67	3.6	4	1
	CHEGA	38,020	23.38	14.3	3	2
	Unitary Democratic Coalition	7,537	4.64	4.4	0	1
	CDS–PP / PPM / ADN	3,434	2.11	—	0	—
	Left Bloc	2,643	1.63	4.2	0	0
	New Right	736	0.45	—	0	—
Total valid		158,923	97.74	2.1	11	0
Blank ballots		2,081	1.28	1.4
Invalid ballots		1,602	0.99	0.7
Total		162,606	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		324,885	50.05	9.9
Source:[28]

Municipal Assembly

Summary of the 12 October 2025 Sintra Municipal Assembly elections
results

2 11 11 9
Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Seats
					Total	±
	PSD / IL / PAN	51,959	31.95	0.6	11	0
	Socialist / LIVRE	50,308	30.94	2.7	11	2
	CHEGA	39,231	24.12	14.3	9	6
	Unitary Democratic Coalition	8,861	5.45	4.2	2	1
	CDS–PP / PPM / ADN	3,730	2.29	—	0	—
	Left Bloc	3,482	2.14	4.5	0	2
	New Right	900	0.55	—	0	—
Total valid		158,471	97.45	2.1	33	0
Blank ballots		2,453	1.53	1.3
Invalid ballots		1,693	1-04	0.8
Total		162,617	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		324,885	50.05	9.9
Source:[29]

Parish Assemblies

Results of the 12 October 2025 Sintra Parish Assembly elections

Parish	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	SCS		APS		CH		CDU
Agualva e Mira-Sintra	28.0	6	35.3	7	25.1	5	5.4	1	19
Algueirão–Mem Martins	31.3	7	30.6	7	25.4	6	5.5	1	21
Almargem do Bispo	35.5	5	28.4	4	26.6	4	4.3	-	13
Belas	34.2	7	28.3	6	24.9	5	5.6	1	19
Cacém e São Marcos	28.7	6	30.0	6	27.3	6	5.6	1	19
Casal de Cambra	15.5	2	53.9	8	21.4	3	3.3	-	13
Colares	42.1	6	27.5	4	14.3	2	7.6	1	13
Massamá e Monte Abraão	32.2	8	34.9	8	19.4	4	6.2	1	21
Montelavar	38.7	4	37.4	4	14.1	1	4.8	-	9
Pêro Pinheiro	49.5	5	18.9	2	21.1	2	3.7	-	9
Queluz	23.5	5	33.0	7	27.1	6	7.9	1	19
Rio de Mouro	29.2	7	31.8	7	25.8	6	6.3	1	21
Santa Maria e São Miguel, São Martinho e São Pedro de Penaferrim	42.5	9	26.1	5	18.4	4	5.5	1	19
São João das Lampas	46.2	7	25.1	3	19.6	3	3.9	-	13
Terrugem	39.2	4	33.9	3	19.7	2	3.0	-	9
Total	32.4	88	31.6	81	23.4	59	5.6	9	237
Source:[30]

Notes

1. Coalition with PSD, IL and PAN.
2. Coalition with PS and LIVRE, also supported by Volt Portugal.
3. In the 2021 election, PSD/CDS/A/MPT/PDR/PPM/RIR had 4 seats and 27.5% of the votes, PAN had 3.3% and failed to elect any seats, while IL had 2.7% and also failed to elect any seats.
4. Coalition with CDS–PP, PPM and ADN.
5. The National Democratic Alternative (ADN) was in 2021 called the Democratic Republican Party (PDR).
6. Denotes a main invitee attending the event.

References

1. Ralha, Leonardo (19 November 2024). "Sintra começa a definir o pós-Basílio com indícios de viragem à direita". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 21 July 2025.
2. ECO (7 July 2025). "Candidata do PS em Sintra apresenta-se na freguesia de Ventura e promete 10 mil casas até 2030". ECO (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 21 July 2025.
3. ""Ameaça da extrema-direita" leva Volt Portugal a declarar apoio a Ana Mendes Godinho em Sintra". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 19 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
4. Lopes, Maria (18 July 2025). "PAN junta-se ao PSD e à IL no apoio a Marco Almeida para a Câmara de Sintra". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
5. Lusa (29 January 2025). "Rita Matias será candidata do Chega à Câmara de Sintra". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
6. Lopes, Maria (29 June 2025). "Descontente com aliança do PSD com IL, CDS-PP sai da coligação e concorre sozinho em Sintra". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
7. Tavares, Jorge (13 February 2025). "Pedro Ventura é o candidato da CDU à Câmara Municipal de Sintra - Sintra Notícias". sintranoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
8. "Marco Almeida derrota Ana Mendes Godinho e conquista Sintra para o PSD". Expresso (in Portuguese). 13 October 2025. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
9. Notícias, Sintra (27 September 2021). "PS vence autárquicas em Sintra - Sintra Notícias". sintranoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 21 July 2025.
10. Lopes, Maria (27 January 2023). "Nuno Afonso, fundador do Chega e principal adversário de Ventura, deixa o partido". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 21 July 2025.
11. "Lei n.º 169/99, de 18 de Setembro". www.pgdlisboa.pt. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
12. "Eleição dos titulares dos órgãos das autarquias locais" (in Portuguese). Diário da República. 14 August 2001. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
13. "Ana Mendes Godinho é a candidata do PS à Câmara de Sintra". SIC Notícias (in Portuguese). 28 January 2025. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
14. Lopes, Maria (1 July 2025). "Livre assina coligação com PS em Sintra, mas não deve conseguir eleger na câmara. Compromisso tem 60 medidas". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
15. Notícias, Sintra (4 February 2025). "Marco Almeida é candidato do PSD à Câmara de Sintra - Sintra Notícias". sintranoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
16. "PPM e ADN coligados com CDS-PP na corrida à Câmara de Sintra". Observador (in Portuguese). 17 August 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
17. "Acórdão (extrato) n.º 752/25, de 13 de agosto". Diário da República (in Portuguese). 13 August 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
18. "Autárquicas: Concelhia do BE aprova candidatura de Tânia Russo em Sintra". www.lusa.pt. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
19. "Autárquicas 2025". NOVA DIREITA (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
20. "As Pessoas, sempre". Ana Mendes Godinho Facebook account (in Portuguese). 16 July 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
21. "Autárquicas Sintra 2025". PSD Sintra Facebook account (in Portuguese). 20 July 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
22. "None". Chega Sintra Facebook account (in Portuguese). 20 August 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
23. "None". CDU Sintra Facebook account (in Portuguese). 20 August 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
24. "None". CDS Sintra Facebook account (in Portuguese). 6 September 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
25. "A nossa candidatura está aí por uma Sintra + Solidária e Sustentável. Junta-te a nós e traz mais alguém!". BE Sintra Facebook account (in Portuguese). 6 September 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
26. "Eleições Autárquicas: o debate de Sintra". SIC Notícias (in Portuguese). 16 September 2025. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
27. "Debates Eleições Autárquicas 2025". RTP (in Portuguese). 22 September 2025. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
28. "Autarquicas Locais 2025" (in Portuguese). Ministry of Home Affairs. 17 October 2025.
29. "Autarquicas Locais 2025" (in Portuguese). Ministry of Home Affairs. 17 October 2025.
30. "Autarquicas Locais 2025" (in Portuguese). Ministry of Home Affairs. 18 October 2025.

External links

• Interior Ministry election results page