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In an interview with the weekly Expresso, published today, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos guarantees that the centrists do not feel “threatened by anyone” and affirms: “Neither by the emerging parties, nor by the neighbor with whom we always knew how to speak.”
“I do not look with apprehension at any party on the right,” says the Christian Democratic leader, who dramatizes the polls that put Chega ahead of the CDS in voting intentions, indicating that he does not celebrate them, nor is he depressed by them, because “it is in the ballot boxes where the forces will be measured”.
When asked if the CDS would enter into an alliance with PSD and Chega, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos indicates that “all the scenarios are open”, but considers that “a broad right-wing, federal solution can never violate values that for CDS they are not negotiable. “
Thus, the party “feels comfortable negotiating” with other political forces that “have a democratic spirit so as not to fall into a demagogic and populist profile” in which the centrists do not see themselves.
“We are not a traulita right, we do not have a hate speech that seeks to put one part of society against the other, nor are we a part that has a permanent nod to the center, that eats at the table of the central bloc of interests and that it has notorious difficulties to differentiate itself from the socialist recipe ”, he defends.
For the centrist leader, “only a CDS with strength and dimension can have a voice in any coalition arc”, and “it should not be avoided that parties to the right of the PS allow parties to the left of the PS”.
Regarding the PSD, he points out that “the positions are not antagonistic” and that they are different strategies.
“In the reforms that must be made, we must seek an understanding. The PSD should now represent the center and the CDS on the right. The idea that came up is that we have to be a kind of fusion … that’s not what we want. But there are good prospects on the horizon, “he stresses.
On the situation in which party he was when he was elected, at a congress that took place in Aveiro at the end of January, and the results achieved so far, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos maintains that “nobody could believe that in three months it will be possible to reverse a electoral result of 4% “.
Regarding the fact that former CDS president Paulo Portas did not speak publicly about his election, the current leader stated that the former deputy prime minister “opted for a sensible position, since the party was very fragmented.”
To the question of whether it is no longer very fragmented, he replied that “from the moment the congress ends” they are “all from the CDS”, adding that he is currently “not worried about the party’s leadership”.
As for next year’s municipal elections, Rodrigues dos Santos does not admit to following in the footsteps of the former leader, Assunção Cristas, and being a candidate for the presidency of the Lisbon City Council.
“I don’t believe in a CDS ‘omnipresident’, who has to be a candidate for everything. It is not an obligation, “he justifies, stressing that he is” working so that the CDS can at least maintain the six cameras it has “and that this” is the conservative objective. “
The president of the CDS also said that the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, “is going particularly fragile” with respect to the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the general director of health, Graça Freitas, and she mentioned that “the The time to count responsibilities will come “, criticizing that” he sent the political interest “in managing this crisis.
In the same interview, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos also criticized the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, alleging that Pedro Nuno Santos “has been a zero left in the management” of the TAP issue.
“We do not agree with these megalomaniac ideas of a riot minister who thinks that taxpayer money should be injected without regulation,” he added.
