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The current president of the Republic and presidential candidate Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has already accepted and scheduled a debate with the candidate supported by the RIR, Tino de Rans, who was left out of the 15 debates with the six presidential candidates broadcast on the three generalist televisions and respective news channels. The source of the candidacy of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed to the Observer that the debate will take place during the electoral campaign, on January 20, in Porto Canal.
The candidate for the Bloco de Esquerda, Marisa Matias, also confirmed, via Twitter, that she accepted “to participate in a debate with the candidate Vitorino Silva, in Porto Canal.” The candidate adds: “I have always defended the equality of conditions with television for all candidates.”
I agreed to participate in a debate with the candidate Vitorino Silva, in Porto Canal.
This is not the first debate I will have with opponents this season. Being a fundamental medium for the debate of ideas, I have always defended equality of circumstances for all candidates on television.– Marisa Matias (@mmatias_) December 26, 2020
The criterion followed by the generalist televisions was, at a stage in which there were several candidates, to choose to face the six candidates supported by parties with parliamentary seats face to face. After all this already defined, Tino de Rans, who is the leader of the RIR (party without a parliamentary seat), managed to deliver the signatures to the Constitutional Court and make his candidacy official. Vitorino Silva (known as “Tino de Rans”) ranked sixth in the 2016 Presidential elections, just about 30 thousand votes from Edgar Silva, fifth.
First week of the year with 15 debates between presidential candidates
On Christmas Day, the candidate Ana Gomes had also made herself available for debates “with Tino de Rans or any other candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, if so invited by the media.” He also said that he hoped that “the remaining candidates would also be available.”
I am in favor of democratic pluralism: I am available for debates with Tino de Rans or any other candidate for PR, if I have an invitation from the media. And I hope other candidates are also available … https://t.co/f35jlSZNeF
– Ana Gomes (@AnaMartinsGomes) December 25, 2020
Hours before Ana Gomes, the candidate supported by the Liberal Initiative, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, had left the “challenge to social communication” to be included in the debates Vitorino Silva and Eduardo Baptista, arguing that they should be “recognized as candidates.”
⏩ In addition to the best known candidates, there are also two candidates, Eduardo Baptista and Vitorino Silva, who must be recognized as candidates.
I leave the challenge to the media of including them in the debates.# Maya2021 pic.twitter.com/RJGH0CA4NL
– Tiago Mayan 2021 (@LiberalMayan) December 25, 2020
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had promised in July that he would agree to debate with all the presidential candidates. The “all” included not only those supported by parties with a parliamentary seat, but also all those who managed to formalize their candidacy before the Constitutional Court.
Marcelo, the Observer knows, also made himself available for another debate in case there is another candidate whose candidacy is officially accepted. Although it was reported that Eduardo Batista delivered the signatures to the Constitutional Court – which in fact happened – the probability that this request will be accepted is practically nil, since he himself admitted on his Facebook page that he only made a symbolic delivery of 11 subscriptions.
Article updated at 4:38 p.m. with the information that Eduardo Batista only symbolically delivered 11 signatures to the Constitutional Court, which means that he will not be officially accepted as a candidate.
Article updated at 7:45 pm with the note of the debate between Marisa Matias and Vitorino Silva.
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