Gaia mayor accuses Defence Minister Nuno Melo of lying over Serra do Pilar land

The dispute over a military plot

Luís Filipe Menezes, mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia, has accused Defence Minister Nuno Melo of lying about a meeting over a military plot on the Serra do Pilar that the council wants for public housing. The council says it plans about 3,000 homes on the site with European Union funds, so the project depends on the army releasing the land. Menezes describes the plot as a former football pitch, abandoned for about 30 years, in an urban area of Gaia close to the metro. He says the council asked for the land 10 or 11 months ago and that the prime minister and the infrastructure minister were receptive, but that Melo is not moving the file forward.

The ministry's account and the 2002 protocol

The Defence Ministry said in a note issued on Friday, 23 October, that the council had not honoured an agreement signed in September 2002 under the Military Infrastructure Law, and that Menezes had not answered a recent request for a meeting. Menezes rejected that account in an interview with SIC Notícias on the night of 23 October, calling it "completely false" that he had been summoned to a meeting on Thursday, 22 October. He challenged the minister to prove it with an email or a WhatsApp message, and said Melo had refused to see him. On Saturday, 24 October, Melo said that in 2002 the army handed the council some of its best land on the Serra do Pilar under a protocol with obligations in return, namely works on three barracks and the enhancement of one plot through its building capacity. Melo added that none of those works has been carried out and that handing the land over now would leave the army with nothing in return, because the Military Infrastructure Law requires land leaving the armed forces to generate revenue rather than being given away. The sequence of the dispute is set out below.

Melo's response in Porto

Melo, who also leads the CDS-PP, spoke to reporters in Porto beside Porto mayor Pedro Duarte, who declined to comment on a denial by organisers of a housing protest camp that they had contact with the council. Melo said he regretted the tone, adjectives and considerations Menezes used, and recalled that his party had loyally backed Menezes during the campaign that brought him to the mayor's office. He stressed his "profound esteem" for the Gaia mayor. He added that he would make no personal remark in return. He put it this way:

“I deeply regret what happened yesterday. I regret the tone, I regret the adjectives, I regret the personal and even partisan considerations.”

Housing plans and Menezes's attacks

In the same interview, Menezes went further and told SIC Notícias how young people would judge the minister:

“The young Portuguese will not forgive the bullying and arrogant attitude of Minister Nuno Melo.”

Menezes also praised PSD ministers, naming Pinto Luz and Paulo Rangel, while contrasting them with Melo, whom he said joined the government without ever winning an election. He said the council expects to deliver 500 homes by March 2027 and about 1,500 by the end of 2027, and that it has an alternative plan if the Defence Ministry does not release the plot. Menezes argued that Portugal needs large-scale social housing and an approach close to a 'war economy', and said the minister does not understand the mood on the street. The council's housing figures are set out below.

Full project3,000

By March 2027500

By end of 20271,500

Full project

3000 homes

By March 2027

500 homes

By end of 2027

1500 homes

Data from the article text