José Ribau Esteves
João Nicolau de Almeida
Joaquim Couto
Mayor of Santo Tirso
He graduated in medicine, but soon began making diagnoses in the political arena. He is the mayor of Santo Tirso, a position he returned to in 2013 after having served as mayor in the 1980s and 1990s. In the intervening period, he was Governor of Oporto, a member of Portuguese parliament, a member of the Parliamentary Health Commission and a councillor in Vila Nova de Gaia. He claims to being driven by public service and by people, and is determined to make his city more sustainable and better known.
Have your medical studies helped you to diagnose gaps and opportunities in a city?
My training as a doctor has essentially helped me in dealing with people and with people’s problems. And I think that this is a very important trait for both a doctor and a politician who wants to work according to the values of humanism and social cohesion.
You were mayor of Santo Tirso between 1982 and 1999, and returned in 2013. What led to you returning?
Public service. I was fully aware that the challenges I would face from 2013 would be very different from those I had to face in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to that, my personal and professional experience over the years in which I wasn’t mayor. I had the chance to perform other functions, to experience other realities and this baggage allowed me to grow as a person.
«My training as a doctor has essentially helped me in dealing with people’s problems»
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement in this municipality?
This is a very difficult question, not least because I am making an evaluation of my own work. There are two areas in which I believe we have been successful. First of all, the social benefits that have been created in Santo Tirso since 2013. We are truly a family friendly municipality, with measures that cover the most needy, the middle classes, the youngest and the oldest. The other area was the fact that we have adopted a strategic policy in the area of economic growth, by attracting companies to the municipality and, thus, reducing the unemployment rate.
What are the main projects for the future?
Sustainable mobility and promoting the Santo Tirso brand nationally and internationally. The first, because this is a central theme in discussions on the city, which corresponds to a means of promoting the way and quality of life. As for promoting the Santo Tirso brand, we believe that this is a means of boosting the economy of the municipality. We have a International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture like nothing else in Europe, with 54 sculptures scattered throughout the city and a museum designed by the renowned architects Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Santo Tirso has gained some cultural and recreational spaces in recent years. Has this resulted in an increase in the number of visitors?
The number of visitors has increased exponentially. Just to give you an idea, between 2013 and 2017 the number of people served in the Interactive Tourism Office rose 58.5 percent. This growth is set to continue.
