“Cities change for the better with diversity”

The challenges of an ever-growing city, the will to continue working on making it a place “with diversity and people from all over the world” and the need to have a strong economy to help those in need. “Social responsibility is what I am most invested in”, said Carlos Moedas, pointing out the crucial sector: “Tourism accounts for 25 percent of our jobs, and 20 percent of our economy.”

TPN: What makes Lisbon so attractive to foreigners?

CM: Lisbon has always had an attraction that comes from our way of being, what I call the "Soul of Lisbon". I have lived abroad a lot, in several different countries, and I spent five years at the European Commission. I can understand why foreigners like to be with us. The Portuguese are intrinsically curious about other cultures and I know many countries where this is not the case. Portuguese people are naturally curious about anything that comes from abroad, and here in Lisbon there is also a strong instinct of hospitality.

Our city has always kept its doors open to the world and was even considered the "tri-city", because of the centuries during which Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived here side by side. Being an open city is very much in our genes.

Foreigners also tell me that when they arrive they immediately feel a part of the city, and that is also rare. The question is how do we maintain this in the future?

TPN: The growth of the city has caused some problems for residents. Do you worry about Lisbon reaching a point, like Barcelona or Tokyo, where the environment becomes less welcoming?

CM: I think we are still very far from scenarios of that type, but we need to be careful. Twenty percent of Lisbon residents were not born here: we are a truly cosmopolitan city. Every day we have between 35,000 and 40,000 tourists arriving in the city. This is not a huge number compared with the million or so people who come into the city every day from surrounding areas. The problem is that those 35,000 tourists all go to the same places at the same time. That’s what gives people the idea that there is already too much tourism.

What have I been trying to do to address this? To create attractions at other locations for tourists to visit, and I also want to increase the tourist tax. This could help reduce some of the tensions that some political forces have been trying to stir up. If Lisbon residents can see that an increased tourist tax is helping to keep the city clean, or to create new attractions, as we are doing with the Almada Negreiros museum, this will improve relations and prevent Lisbon from getting to the point we are seeing in Barcelona or Venice.

We need to stop that happening, but tourism is extremely important to our city.

TPN: Is increasing the number of visits, whether by tourists or residents, one of your goals as Mayor? Is it crucial for the city's growth?

CM: Diversity is my goal. The best cities, the ones which create the most jobs and have a better quality of life, are the ones with the greatest diversity. That implies having different people, of different religions and different ways of thinking: all of that is good for a city. But it is also one of the issues that is polarising society, between the far-right that doesn’t like struggling immigrants or refugees and the far-left that doesn’t like rich foreigners.

Here, the goal is to have a city with diversity and people from all over the world. I’m very concerned that the world is becoming polarised between two extremes, right and left. I'm trying to stop this from happening in Lisbon. I think I’ll succeed because the people of Lisbon are, in general, moderate.

TPN: With this increase in visitors and foreign residents, isn’t there a risk that the city loses its identity?

CM: No, the city's identity will remain. That identity comes from telling our story. Just as our grandparents tell us our family history, our country should tell its history, and we must tell our city's history. But cities do change, and rightly so. They change for the better with diversity.

TPN: So this is part of the future? The diversity of its residents is essential for the growth of the city?

CM: Undoubtedly. In the last couple of years, the city has been growing, with many people coming from overseas. Without that, the population would have fallen steeply. Between 2010 and 2020 we believed that would happen. But it didn’t, thanks to the arrival of those 20 percent from outside.

TPN: What is needed to make Lisbon even more attractive for visitors, investors and residents?

CM: In a city, you are constantly managing conflict, it’s a daily job. It’s having people asking me to close a street and make it exclusively for bicycles; while others want to see bikes banned. For example, in Travessa dos Mastros a group of activists wanted to close the street to traffic and I said I thought that could make sense. Then, suddenly, some older people appeared with a petition to keep the cars on the street. It comes with the job, everything has to be done gradually. Today we have the far left that wants everything done immediately, and the far right that believes that nothing should change, everyone should have a car and there should be no pedestrian pavements. Then there is the moderate centre of which I believe I am a good representative, where we defend doing things gradually. I am very moderate, and I believe that to govern in any other way would create social friction.

TPN: One of the most common complaints concerns the bureaucracy foreigners experience while obtaining visas or residence cards. As Mayor, and recognising that this is not the responsibility of the City Hall, are there ways in which you can improve the process?

CM: I can't intervene directly. But I have been working with the Minister of the Presidency, for example, so that people here who find themselves in difficulties, without papers, are able to have easier access to AIMA to resolve their situation. There are many people on waiting lists and we will do what we can to facilitate solutions. If investment is needed we will invest, if it’s construction we will build it, we will get it done. But we need the help of the Government.

TPN: For sustainable growth or gradual as you call it, is it better to have more tourists or more residents?

CM: Obviously, tourism has a bigger numerical impact, it represents 25 percent of our jobs and 20 percent of our economy. In the foreign population that lives here, we have a bit of everything. We have those who are financially well off, who have a negative impact on house prices, but on the other hand, create jobs and businesses and contribute to the city. We also have those who experience great difficulties, sometimes even harder than those faced by the Portuguese.

TPN: It’s a delicate balance between social responsibility and economic interests…

CM: Social issues are always the priority, but the problem is that without the economy we have no money. Without money we can’t address the social issues. My first job as Mayor was in social measures. For example, we received European Union funding, €560 million, to build houses. More than 10 percent of Lisbon's population live in municipal housing. There are not many cities in the world with this percentage and across the whole of Portugal the average is only 2 or 3 percent. We are going to build more and support more people. Social responsibility is what I am most invested in.

TPN: At the moment, house prices are the most pressing issue in Lisbon ...

CM: By far, there is no immediate solution. First, because new construction takes three years, and secondly because in a city with the size, attractiveness and economy of Lisbon there will always be people on the waiting list.

TPN: Give me a positive example. A city that implemented effective measures to control rent and housing costs …

CM: As I said it is not an easy problem to solve. The only city where it has been working well is Vienna, a city that has built a lot of municipal housing. I think that is the only way to go, but we are also working with cooperatives of young people: we give them the land so the houses become cheaper.

TPN: I assume your policies will always be focused on managing costs rather than imposing price controls?

CM: That would be the end of democracy, right? Those are policies that are not democratic or normal, and for countries that go down that path, it does not end well. Implementing price controls ends up creating a parallel economy. What we need is to set an example, to build more and have better plans to help people afford rental costs.

TPN: Finally we now know where the new airport will be. In the short term, does the announcement have any impact for the city?

CM: Not in the short term and, unfortunately, our airport is already maxed out. We need to think about what we want to do with that space. As we created Parque Tejo, thirty acres of green city, we need to consider what that area could be for. But that is a ten-year plan that needs to be well thought out. However, the impact of the new airport is positive in every way.