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Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of State and Foreign Relations, considered this Tuesday that Ana Gomes should not have the support of the Socialist Party (PS) in the next presidential elections.
“If Ana Gomes is a good candidate? Yes, she enriches the democratic debate. If she is a good candidate to have the support of the Socialist Party? In my opinion, no.”, began defending the government official in an interview tonight with TVI24.
Recalling that the PS will continue to assume an official position after the meeting of the National Commission scheduled for next month, Santos Silva argued that socialist support for a candidate in this race to Belém should be defined in “four very simple criteria”.
First, the minister said: an assessment of the mandate of the Current Republic President. “The overwhelming assessment of the PS and the Portuguese electorate is that this mandate was very positive and that this balance with the majority was very important. [de esquerda] in the Assembly of the Republic, Government and President of the Republic ”, he said.
Later, the party should too reflect on what is the “understanding of Rebelo de Sousa” of a possible second term. “He innovated a lot in the first term – and well, in my opinion – and I hope he also innovates in the interpretation he makes of the second term,” he shot.
A third criterion refers, once again, to whether Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is again a candidate for Belém, with “the understanding that he will have of projection of the President of the Republic as guarantor of democratic space and institutional life in Portugal ”.
“There are those who want to take advantage of the presidential elections to give projection to conceptions undemocratic. We must not fight extremism with other extremism, (…) I would like the fight against extremism to be based on the great arc of moderates, who understand the common sense of the Portuguese people “he argued, without naming names.
As a last method of analysis, Santos Silva pointed out that it is necessary to take into account “a consonantancia of the PS with its own constituency “. “It is enough, in fact, to consult the surveys to understand what the orientation of the PS is,” he concluded.
This is not the first time that the government has hinted that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa fits the profile that a candidate supported by the PS should have. One of the moments when this inclination was clearest occurred, in May this year, when António Costa expressed his desire to Current Republic President reapply to the mail, apart from a visit to Autoeurope. At that time, the head of government’s statements generated controversy and Santos Silva came out in defense of the prime minister and said that António Costa and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “combine harmoniously.
In the last presidential elections, the PS decided to give the militants freedom to vote, who were divided between Sampaio da Fog and Maria de Belém.
About four months before the next race to Belém, there are already eight candidates for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who will only announce his decision in November as for a reapplication. This is the deputy André Ventura (Chega), lawyer and founder of the Liberal Initiative Tiago Matam Gonçalves, leader of the Democratic Republican Party (PDR), Bruno Fialho, MEP and director of BE Marisa Matias, the former deputy to the European Parliament and director of PS Ana Gomes, Vitorino Silva (better known as Tino de Rans), former militant of the CDS Orlando Cruz and João Ferreira, from PCP.
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