CDS.pt
Paulo Portas, former CDS minister
Supported by CDS? And Gouveia e Melo? Many questions and few answers. But, from the PSD, support should not arrive — there are no coalitions when it comes to presidential matters. Montenegro wants to support a candidate from its party.
It is too early to make presidential decisions, believes the former CDS leader, Paulo Portas. Still, according to , the former Minister of State and Defense of the governments of Durão Barroso and Santa Lopes does not rule out the presidential race.
The CDS’s position on which candidate to support must therefore depend on the decision of Portas, who also played the role of Foreign Minister and, later, Deputy Prime Minister in Passos Coelho’s governments.
Doubts about the CDS’ support for Admiral Gouveia e Melo were raised after his meeting with the Minister of Defense, Nuno Melofrom the same party as Paulo Portas. It is, therefore, uncertain which candidate would be formally supported by the CDS.
Even so, Luis Montenegro guaranteed that, on the part of the PSD, there will only be support for one PSD candidate. To , the Prime Minister had already guaranteed in October that Luís Marques Mendes is “one of those who best fits the profile”.
Already Hugo Soaresparliamentary leader of the PSD, on the Fato Político program, on November 30, that “the PSD has among its staff several protagonists to be President of the Republic“.
But nothing excludes PSD support for Portas, but only if there are no other preferred candidates (that is, from the PSD), said Hugo Soares: “Presidential candidacies emanate from the people who propose to run for office. Imagine that there are no PSD activists running. It is clear that the PSD could not support any candidate”.
According to CDS sources, in a statement to SIC, the PSD made this decision without speaking to the CDS, its coalition partner, which is why the The Prime Minister’s statements were seen as a “betrayal”.
As Público remembers, the CDS and PSD only supported different candidates once — in 1991, when Cavaco Silva’s government supported the re-candidacy of the then President of the Republic, Mário Soares.
