Marcelo is not alone. There are (or may be) nine more candidates | Presidential 2021

With the presentation of the candidacy of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, it seems that the range of candidates for the presidential elections on January 24 is concluded. They must formalize their applications by delivering the 7,500 signatures required by law until the 24th, Christmas Eve. So far, these are the already known candidates.

Ana Gomes already has 7,500 signatures

Ana Gomes officially presented her candidacy on September 8. He did it alone. Without a campaign machine, without troops, and when it was already clear that the PS would not show support for any candidate. The socialist has always defended that her party should have its own candidate, although she did not have in mind that it was going to advance. He ended up playing, after António Costa, albeit indirectly, having declared his support for a possible re-election of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. As the days went by, the diplomat was gaining support. It has PAN and Livre, some socialist leaders and governors, some party historians and many members of the Socialist Youth, but there are also many people from the PS who do not “marry” their candidacy.

The pre-campaign has been based on debates between doors and broadcasts through the Internet and some visits to companies and institutions, having already almost traveled the country. The socialist knows that it will be almost impossible to beat Marcelo in the first lap, but she hopes that there will be a second lap, with her in the race. A source from the campaign management assures that the 7,500 necessary signatures have already been collected, but they will remain on the street to avoid any failure that may occur in the validation process.

Marisa Matias tries to repeat feat

When, five years ago, she ran for the first time for the Presidency of the Republic, Marisa Matias achieved the best result in history for a candidate supported by the Bloco de Esquerda. The MEP bloc was third in the race to Belém, with 10.12% of the votes. Now, without betting on the objectives, Marisa Matias continues to want “the best possible result”. For disputing part of the electorate of Ana Gomes, with whom she has a friendship she is proud of, Marisa Matias faced the possibility of surrendering in favor of the former Socialist MEP. However, he was emphatic and ruled out any possibility of surrender.

He presented his candidacy at Largo do Carmo, in Lisbon, nail in hand. In times of pandemic and crisis, Marisa wants to be “the candidate against fear.” His collection of signatures in the streets ended this Sunday, so the formalization will be forthcoming. At her side, Marisa has the support of the sociologist Boaventura Sousa Santos, the economist Ricardo Cabral and the writer María Teresa Horta.

Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, the liberal candidate

He presents himself as the candidate of the liberal alternative and it is in this space where he wants to win votes. Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, a 43-year-old lawyer, believes that there is a majority right-wing electorate that rejects Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but also André Ventura. Supported by the Liberal Initiative, Tiago Mayan hopes to seek votes in the PSD and CDS electorate, who are against the excessive weight of the State in society. In his own words, the candidate is located in a “space that brings together liberals and those who do not see themselves in a president who has abdicated him or in populists of the left and right.”

In the presentation of the candidacy, last July, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves made a critical speech about the system: “I am a citizen like you, fed up with the bubble in which the political system lives, oblivious to the life of the Portuguese. I am not engaged. I am not involved in networks of interests, complicities and conveniences, the entourages and elites of Terreiro do Paço ”. As for the number of signatures required, the source of the candidacy said that the goal of exceeding 7,500 “is on the right track.”

Does João Ferreira travel higher paths in the PCP?

He has been the face of the PCP in the main electoral battles of recent years: he led the list twice over Europeans, twice as much as the Lisbon Chamber race. And if for the European Parliament, in 2014, João Ferreira brought the CDU to the three MEPs, last year he lost one and almost half of the votes; but in Lisbon he managed to increase the votes. He accumulates the position of MEP with that of councilor and is seen as a strong name for the future of the PCP. He was named successively as a possible deputy or “vice” of Jerónimo in the Loures congress, to ensure the transition of the party leadership. A scenario favored by the fact that both Carvalhas and Jerónimo were presidential candidates before becoming general secretary. For now, Ferreira has joined the political committee of the central committee.

With the CDU successively falling with each election that passes from the “contraption”, João Ferreira’s task in January will not be easy, although Edgar Silva set the bar lower than ever in 2016: 183 thousand votes, 3.94%, a fifth place. João Ferreira’s message has been to stick Marcelo to António Costa’s “right-wing politics”, in a portrait of a president who looks more to the capital than to the Portuguese, who has leaned towards European interests instead of emphasizing the sovereignty Portuguese society, which privileges affection over action.

André Ventura shooting everyone and measuring their weight

He was the first to launch into the race, at the beginning of March, in an unusual place, Portalegre, and has taken advantage of the Parliament stage to promote himself, without avoiding shooting with the numbers of the polls to the Bloc and the PCP, which have their own candidates . The pandemic reduced campaign actions, but Ventura held monthly dinners in various districts with supporters.

André Ventura says that he has already managed to reach ten thousand signatures and that he intends to deliver them to the Constitutional Court by the 20th. It will be at that time that he will ask to suspend his mandate as a deputy to dedicate himself to the campaign.

The Chega leader has a regular speech at rallies where he shoots ironies and accusations at everyone with a very gruesome style, but with a preference for Marcelo and Ana Gomes (he has already promised that he will resign if he has fewer votes than the former MEP , but meanwhile withdrew). The presidential elections are a test to measure Chega’s electoral weight in the country with one eye on the legislatures and the other on the PSD.

Tino de Rans, the repeater

Vitorino Silva (known as Tino de Rans), a paver from Penafiel, ran in 2016, having obtained 3.2% of the votes, staying close to the then PCP candidate. This socialist activist, who made himself known at a PS congress (in 1999) in which he delivered an enthusiastic speech, announced his candidacy in September, having asked that the date of the elections be postponed because of the pandemic.

Plus…

Two more personalities who have already publicly declared that they want to gather the necessary signatures to formalize their candidacy will be able to enter the contest: Bruno Fialho, lawyer and president of the Republican Democratic Party, founded by lawyer and former MEP Marinho Pinto; Paulo Alves, a businessman from Felgueiras and affiliated with the Juntos pelo Povo party, and Orlando Cruz, a retired taxi driver from Vila Nova de Gaia, who has already announced that he is a candidate on previous occasions, but has not gathered the necessary signatures to formalize his candidacy.

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