This Monday is local election day in Norway and there is a Portuguese who is going to vote. Nuno Marques came to the country 19 years ago to play football and is now vice president of the Notodden City Council, in the south of the country, about a hundred kilometers from the capital, Oslo.
“It all started four years ago, when I was also a candidate. Then I was elected vice president and these four years passed very quickly, largely due to the pandemic and then the party decided to bet on me again and we have done a good job.” I work during these four periods, so why not another four years? “Now, whether I continue as vice president or am elected president, tonight’s results will dictate what the next four years will look like,” he says. TSF the Portuguese candidate of a centrist party for the elections in Notodden.
Comparing Norwegian politics with Portuguese politics, Nuno Marques explains that “it is a little different”, because in Norway “there is greater trust between the people, the voters and the politicians” and “the distance is quite short between the people and the politicians and people also demand more from politicians.”
Nuno Marques came to Norway in 2004 to play football for Lyn. Goalkeeper, the Portuguese graduated from Benfica, but his few opportunities took him to northern Europe, where he developed his entire career. He joined Notodden FK in 2008.
“Many people already knew me about soccer. I was a very loyal and very beloved player, two followers and two inhabitants. Therefore, it was very helpful when I suddenly appeared as the first candidate for President of the municipality of Notodden. Oh, in reaction to them I was “quite good and have been quite good. I don’t see myself as an outsider, because I’ve only been around for many years. I’ve been able to falar a language and acquire a double nationality, therefore, I’ve run very well,” says the now netkeeper trainer and college professor.
Regarding these elections and the future, the promises to the population were very simple: “Fortunately, in recent years here in Notodden there has been good development in terms of labor industries. People are quite optimistic about the future, although this interest and inflation has also arrived here in Norway. I have not promised anything special, only the construction of a primary school here in an area of Notodden, as has been promised for more than ten years.”
Nuno Marques does not rule out the possibility of returning to Portugal one day and running as a candidate for the national authority.
Source: TSF
