THE LOOKOUT | Controversy in the Torrejanos Fire Department leads to dismissal in the municipal assembly

At the municipal assembly, he shared the PSD/CDS coalition bench with Nuno Cruz, the resigning president of the fire department. AT THE MIRANTE, the social democrat says that the motivation for resigning was different.

The person elected by the PSD/CDS coalition in the Municipal Assembly of Torres Novas, Arnaldo Santos, resigned from the position he held in that deliberative body, having been replaced by André Valentim. The communication was made by the chairman of the municipal assembly, José Trincão Marques, at the session held on February 26th.
Speaking to O MIRANTE, Arnaldo Santos states that “he should have resigned from his mandate last year”, which did not happen “because there was a PSD political committee that was about to leave”. A situation that led him to postpone the request now made, after a new political commission entered at the beginning of this year, chaired by Tiago Ferreira, also a councilor in the Torres Novas Chamber.
“I simply felt that my presence was neither useful nor important for that municipal assembly and that I was not exercising my mandate in accordance with what would be the wishes and my obligation to do so as a representative of that political force”, explains Arnaldo Santos.
Asked whether this departure had anything to do with the controversy that has revolved around the Torrejanos Voluntary Firefighters Humanitarian Association – in which he holds the position of president of the general assembly – which is preparing to elect a new board, after being sworn in in May 2023 resigned after an extraordinary session was called to vote on his dismissal, he responds: “It had absolutely nothing to do with it. It only happens because I understand that my contribution was insufficient”, he emphasizes.
It should be remembered that the resigning management of the Torrejanos Firefighters, which claims to have detected possible tax fraud in the order of half a million euros which involves the management of the previous management headed by Arnaldo Santos, is chaired by Nuno Cruz, who shared, until 23 February, the PSD/CDS bench at the Municipal Assembly of Torres Novas with Arnaldo Santos.
After having been head of the list for the municipal assembly coalition and having held the position of municipal deputy for around two years, Arnaldo Santos tells our newspaper that despite leaving the position he will be available to help in whatever way “is useful” . However, he clarifies, it is most likely that his time in political office has ended. “I can no longer imagine myself holding any other position”, he finishes.
Arnaldo Santos was a councilor in the Torres Novas Chamber in the executive chaired by Casimiro Pereira, having assumed leadership of the municipality when the latter left office before the end of his term. In 1989 he was elected president of the municipality and in the 1993 local elections he lost the chamber to António Rodrigues, elected by the Socialist Party.