Porto, Portugal, Feb. 12, 2026 (Lusa) - The mayor of Portugal's second city, Porto, Pedro Duarte, wants the assisted drug consumption room next to the Pasteleira neighbourhood to leave this location "between two schools" and told Lusa that a new location is being considered.
"We have been working very hard on this drug addiction issue (...) with the ministry of health and the consortium responsible for managing the assisted consumption room, and our intention is to rethink its location and, eventually, find new facilities that can provide a better response than the current one," he revealed in an interview with Lusa, on Thursday.
For the mayor, it is unacceptable to have a facility like this "stuck to the wall of an institution such as the Serralves Foundation - visited by schools, tourists and citizens - and between two schools", assuming that the conditions of the room itself lead to the proliferation of consumption "in a very short perimeter around it".
When asked about the future location, the Social Democrat mayor referred to an assessment being carried out by experts, but acknowledged that the room "cannot remain in a completely isolated location" without access.
Although he considers it necessary to ‘humanise those who fall into this disease’, Pedro Duarte assured that he is not afraid to demand stronger action against people who are ‘prevaricating and disrupting public life’, and said that the problem of drug addiction will be addressed at the next meeting of the municipal security council.
On the eve of completing 100 days since taking office as mayor of Porto, Pedro Duarte (elected by the PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition) rejects the idea that the creation of the security department is merely symbolic and guarantees that it has brought about changes with a "concrete effect on the daily lives" of the people of Porto.
The creation of 27 new positions in the Municipal Police to free up more municipal police officers for street duty, the commissioning of 117 new video surveillance cameras, and the announcement of the extension of this network to the parish of Ramalde are some of the examples he cites.
The addition of 80 new officers to the Municipal Police, announced by the mayor in December during the discussion of the 2026 budget in the Municipal Assembly, should only take effect "by the summer", with this process being handled by the Public Security Police.
The mayor also acknowledged that, due to the concentration of efforts on mitigating the damage caused by the recent storms, he has not had "much contact" with the ministry of the interior to draw up the also promised plan to reinforce security in the city, but maintains that it could still be presented by the end of March.
"We in the city are, for now, moving forward with the improvement of public lighting on some roads," he revealed, adding that a plan for the entire district is being drawn up.
In addition to establishing security as a priority for this term of office, Pedro Duarte's municipal campaign was also marked by criticism of the densification of the city of Porto.
The Social Democrat assured Lusa that he could use "various instruments" to slow down the amount of new construction in the district, the first of which is "dialogue with the city and with [property] developers".
"I think that we sometimes get too caught up in formalities. I must say that my experience over these 100 days has been that investors and property developers are the first to be interested in this city having quality of life, because it also makes it more attractive for their own business. And I think that with common sense, this can be done," he said.
While stressing that he does not intend to discourage new construction, Pedro Duarte believes that now is the time to "stop and think for a moment" and, as a "last resort", there are always legal instruments and the Municipal Master Plan (PDM) "will certainly need to be revised, at least in some areas", he said.
"The PDM stipulates a certain maximum number of floors in some areas, but it does not specify the height of each floor. Therefore, there are situations where buildings may have two floors, but are actually high-rise buildings. This is a very basic example, but there are circumstances that we can improve by making small changes to the PDM," he added.
According to a report published on the local authority's website, at the end of the second half of 2025, 148 applications for tourist developments were being processed by the urban planning department, a figure that Pedro Duarte interprets as "a sign that there are high expectations for the future of the city" and dismisses any desire to limit tourism by the city council.
Pedro Duarte considers, however, that it is necessary to start investing in public policies that help to improve tourism in Porto, suggesting that it is "of no interest" to have tourists who "come to spend a few hours in the city to party and return the next morning" and who "disrupt the lives" of Porto's residents.
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