Lisbon, Sept. 8, 2025 (Lusa) - The opposition to the PSD/CDS-PP leadership of the Lisbon city council on Monday criticised the fact that the mayor of the city, Carlos Moedas (PSD), left the extraordinary meeting on the Glória funicular accident, which ended up being adjourned.
According to the mayor's office, Carlos Moedas left the city council meeting at 12 noon to meet with the minister of health in order to get "an update on the injured" from the Glória funicular crash, which occurred on Wednesday and caused 16 deaths and two dozen injuries, including Portuguese and foreigners of various nationalities.
The extraordinary town hall meeting, which began at 9.30am to discuss measures to deal with the accident, was interrupted at 1pm and is expected to resume at 2.30pm, to vote on proposals from the PSD/CDS, PS and PCP leaderships.
Socialist councillor Pedro Anastácio said that Carlos Moedas "abandoned the meeting" and repudiated his absence from the discussion of "a situation this serious", considering that the session should have already taken place and pointing out that, after this morning's work, "there are still many aspects that need to be clarified".
The Socialists propose measures to support the victims, "transparency and in-depth, complete and swift clarification" about the accident, and to guarantee the reliability of Lisbon's facilities, as well as the creation of a memorial to honour the victims.
The socialist expressed his willingness to agree on the proposals, considering that there are common points between PS and PSD/CDS-PP.
Regarding Carlos Moedas' interview with the SIC TV on Sunday, Pedro Anastácio asked the Social Democrat to publicly retract his "particularly insulting and unacceptable" attack on the memory of former minister Jorge Coelho, when he mentioned his resignation after the 2002 Entre-os-Rios bridge collapse tragedy.
João Ferreira, from the Communists (PCP), also presented a proposal to support the victims and establish the causes and responsibilities, including "setting up an evaluation commission including members of the public transport operator Carris' municipal services, workers' representative organisations and institutions from the national scientific and technological system", to strengthen the inspection and maintenance conditions for the lifts.
The communist said that the answers given by the president of Carris at this executive meeting "didn't dispel all doubts, also because there are questions to which there is still no answer", noting that it is necessary to seek a more precise definition of the existing redundancies, "if necessary proposing new elements that can reinforce safety".
The PCP also suggests an assessment of the conditions necessary for the future internalisation of the maintenance service at Carris, with a view to reversing the outsourcing process, pointing out that there were warnings from workers about the maintenance and safety of the lifts: "Some of the warnings were public."
Rui Tavares, from Livre, said that "the causes and political consequences" of this accident must be thoroughly investigated: "It's not possible, of course, to say that things went well, because this is an accident that shouldn't, couldn't have happened."
The Livre councillor accused Carlos Moedas of wanting to "get the whole country discussing the trambolho [fitting piece] and whether there is a direct responsibility on his part for the work in cabin 1 of the Glória funicular", and said that "it is precisely with carelessness towards tourism that an accident like this happens".
"There are safety issues that are not being followed as they should be by the Lisbon city council," criticised Rui Tavares, considering that "there is a pattern of a mayor who has attached more importance to some vanity projects than to these essential projects for the life of the city," such as rubbish or public lighting.
Ricardo Moreira, from the Left Bloc (BE), said that for Carlos Moedas "everything seems to have gone well and he himself doesn't think he's responsible for anything". In his view, it is "absolutely unacceptable" that the Social Democrat said that everything went well and that he "ran away" from the town hall meeting.
The Bloc member pointed out that the number of people using Lisbon's lifts rose by "more than 50% between 2022 and 2024", yet Carris launched an outsourced maintenance contract this year that has "a price 30% lower than that of 2022".
"Surely with more maintenance, more inspection, this wouldn't have happened [...]. The political responsibility lies with Carlos Moedas and Carlos Moedas is running away from that responsibility like the devil from the cross," declared the BE councillor.
From Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), Rui Franco regretted that Moedas had gone "on the attack at a time when all the opposition had been very careful not to mix the critical assessment and perspective of what happened with the moment to honour the victims".
When the time came for scrutiny, Rui Franco pointed out that "the first responsibility failed" on the part of the Lisbon city council - to guarantee the safety of this equipment - and pointed out that before the accident, "just a few weeks ago", the maintenance and inspection protocols were relaunched and taken over by this mayor, but it was shown "that they were not enough".
‘Numerous times we pointed out faults and non-compliances in various pieces of equipment that needed to be recovered and improved,’ said the councillor, noting that these interventions ‘were not carried out, as they have yet to be done".
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