-PUB-
With the revolution of April 25, 1974, democratic life began in Portugal, after decades of dictatorship. Armando Moreira was in Luanda, where he worked at Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor, and news of what was happening in Lisbon arrived on the radio.
“We followed it on the radio, with great expectations”, he recalls, admitting that “it was a very happy day”. He returned in 1975 and took up teaching, being placed in Mirandela and then in Vila Real.
However, politics appeared in his life by chance, becoming the first mayor of Vila Real after the 25th of April, being elected in 1976, in what were the first local elections in the country.
“I taught classes in the morning and in the afternoon I did other things. In June of that year, in front of the Hotel Tocaio, a colleague of mine told me that the party wanted to invite me to be a candidate for the chamber. I found it strange, because I wasn’t linked to any party”, says Armando Moreira, who, in Africa, had carried out territorial administration functions. “They thought I had enough CV and skills to be a candidate and I ended up accepting”.
He ended up winning the elections, representing the PSD, a position he held for five terms. “These were years of hard work”, he confesses, remembering that “between 77 and 79 the municipalities did not have their own resources” and that “the first Local Finance law only appeared at the end of the first term”.
CHALLENGES
As mayor he had many challenges, in different areas, starting with housing because “it was necessary to have houses and conditions for the returnees”, with support being given to several cooperatives, with Traslar being “the one that built the most houses”. According to Armando Moreira, “in the mid-1990s we had housed, in social housing, at controlled costs and through a cooperative initiative, more than 10 thousand people, a number that I consider impressive”.
In education, “a survey was carried out, in the first months of the mandate, of the needs of school buildings. Between 1977 and 1987, 22 buildings were built or redeveloped. Until I stopped working there were another 17”.
In health, one of the topics that continues to be much debated today, “when I became president, the situation was very bad”, both in terms of infrastructure and the lack of doctors. “In 1994, when I left the council, two health centers had been built, there were consultations in 10 locations in rural parishes and the Hospital Center buildings had been constructed”.
Furthermore, it does not hide that the greatest needs of the population, in the post-25th of April period, were related to “water supply and electricity”. From his years as president, Armando Moreira also highlights the creation of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro and the Monte da Forca Stadium, a project that he regrets having “remained unfinished”.
“It was necessary to create legislation, provide local authorities with financial resources and management instruments. There was no time to waste, there was a lot to do.” Today, and as a defender of regionalization, he hopes that “local authorities will have more autonomy and stop being so dependent on central power to solve their problems”.
“I really enjoyed being mayor, I felt very cared for”, but “I don’t miss it”, he confesses.
