Common sense, Europe, poverty: Marcelo’s “very defeatist” message

President of the Republic highlighted that institutional solidarity is needed, renewing democracy and spoke about the priority of the European Union.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, focused on the international scene, on its traditional New Year message, from the Belém Palace.

Marcelo said last night that the European Union must “do everything for the alliance with the United States of America” and at the same time remain united and not neglect allies.

“What the European Union faces as challenges is firstly to do everything for the alliance with the United States of America, but don’t count only or mainly on this. Stay united, don’t let alliances and allies fall, prepare for a complex situation in the East, gain your own military weight, recover economically, correct the delay in investment, in knowledge, in which you have lost points with the States United States of America and with Asia and, finally, reform its fragile economic, political and social systems”, stated the head of state.

At the beginning of his communication, which lasted around eight minutes, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa referred to the international plan and the challenges that Europe faces, arguing that it is necessary to do all of this at the same time and it is “everything is difficult, but everything is essential for the European Union to assert itself as a global power in the world”.

In what was Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s eighth and penultimate message as head of state, he said that what happened in 2024 will “determine much of what the year that began today will be like”.

“In the world, it showed that the two main wars continued and worsened, and the recovery the savings era weak, despite falling prices and interest rates. In Europe, the June elections provided momentary relief for certain leaders and parties in power, but it was very short-lived, as strong economies continued to decline and the governments of these economies were already falling or continuing their slow decline. Closing the year, the North American elections they returned to 2016, allowing the winner to define the peace he wants, in Ukraine and in the Middle East”, he stated.

And he presented the possible scenarios: “A paz fair, lasting, respectful of international law and humanitarian law, and therefore the dignity of people? Or an unfair, precarious peace, ignoring the rights and respect of people and their humanitarian situation?”

The Portuguese President considered that the next North American President, Donald Trump, will have to “choose between wanting to collaborate with the European Union or wanting to move away from it, with the Russian Federation and China winning more or less, depending on the American positions”.

“More alliance between the United States of America and the European Union in the economy, in politics, in Ukraine, in the Middle East, is better for Europe and worse for the Russian Federation and China, less alliance is better for the Russian Federation and to China”, he explained.

Common sense, democracy, poverty

More internally, the President of the Republic warned of the need for institutional solidarity and strategic cooperation in 2025, which guarantees that the country has stability and predictability in the year that begins today.

“We need the common sense which led us to reinforce the institutional solidarity and until strategic cooperation between sovereign bodies, namely the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, continues, and which also led us to approve the 2024 and 2025 budgets, continues to guarantee stability, predictability and respect at home and abroad”, stated the head of state.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that it is necessary “renew a democracy, not let her get old”, with regard to “youth, the role of women, the fight against corruption, the construction of tolerance and dialogue, the refusal of personal, domestic, family and social violence, the capacity of political forces, economic and social, but also in the justice system, but also in public administration, to focus on the future, to better serve the community”.

The President of the Republic asked for more fight against povertystating that “poverty, for the two million Portuguese people, is a fundamental structural problem that democracy has not been able to solve”.

Pointing out that in 2024 Portugal marked the 50th anniversary of the revolution of April 25, 1974 and the centenary of the birth of Mário Soares, the head of state stated that the Portuguese do not want to “lose either freedom or democracy”, but realized that “a cycle closed, 50 years old, and Evoking April is looking to the future, not repeating the past“.

“We need more equality social and territorial, we need even more education, the best healththe best housing. To achieve this, we need to better qualify human resources, innovate more, compete with more productivity, continue to anticipate and do well in the field of clean energy, in the field of digital, in cutting-edge technology, but not allow the gap to deepen, the distance , between young people who advance and those who cannot, between young people who advance and those over 55, 60, 65 years old, who increasingly enter alleys with few or no exits”, he warned.

And he summarized: “In a word, a economy that grows and can pay better and increase the income of the Portuguese, thus also correcting their inequalities”.

The President of the Republic warned that it is necessary that “the economic and financial numbers, coming from the near past, in what they had and have positive, and confirmed in the present, are consolidated and accentuated”.

Marcelo also insisted on the application of resources from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

“We need the 16 billion PRR that we have to spend in the next two years to be really used and to make us forget the 6,300 million that we spent, that we used, in the same time or even greater, until today”, he reinforced, arguing that Portugal has to become “more prepared to face the accelerated changes in Europe and the world”.

“We need to affirm the relevance of Camões’ universal vision, so rightly remembered this year. Being Portuguese means being universal. This is decisive in our national identity”, he highlighted.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also referred to the local elections, stating that “the people will be the supreme judge of the response to so many challenges”.

“I believe in the experienced and determined will of the Portuguese people, I believe in the Portuguese, I believe, as always, in Portugal”, he said.

The President of the Republic also said that the Portuguese learn “from everything and everyone, from everyone” and do not have “a monopoly on the truth”, nor do they throw “anything away”.

“We keep it for our collective memory for centuries,” he added.

“Very defeatist”

Almost all parties have already reacted. THE PSD Carlos Coelho pointed out “special tune” between the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic and the Happy Holidays message from the Prime Minister, noting that Marcelo’s messages are addressed, above all, to the opposition.

“Last week I was here to comment on the Prime Minister’s happy holidays message and today we heard the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic. Both highlight hope for the future and there is a special harmony between them”, said the vice-president of the PSD, Carlos Coelho.

Pedro Nuno Santos said that he shares the concerns of the President of the Republic, but considered that “there is no confidence in the current Government’s ability to resolve them”.

“We share the concerns of the President of the Republic, but unfortunately we don’t have and trust in the capacity of the current Government to resolve them”, analyzed the secretary general of PS.

The president of He arrives considered that the New Year message “was short” than expected, as I would have liked to have heard Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa address topics such as health or insecurity.

“Today we heard the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic, which fell short of what we expected, because we expected a message that would be capable of pointing out the wrong paths to the Government and also pointing out to the country the wrong paths that have been pursued”, said André Ventura.

The president of Liberal Initiative thinks that a central issue was missing, both in this intervention and in the Prime Minister’s Christmas message: “From these interventions there is a great absence to be noted, which is the absence of any reference to State reform”, criticized Rui Rocha.

O PCP appeals to paz, no to disputes: “We need peace and cooperation and not a policy of disputes between peoples and between States. And not, as some argue, cutting pensions and Social Security to invest in more weapons”, said Rui Fernandes, communist leader.

The parliamentary leader of the Book classified as “very defeatist” the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic, both internationally and nationally, and which “did not leave high hopes for the next cycle”. “This message caused us quite some strangeness because it seemed to us to be a very defeatist message both on an international and national level,” Isabel Mendes Lopes told Lusa.

The spokesperson for PAN hopes that the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, will listen to the “messages of the President of the Republic” regarding the need for institutional solidarity, which he argued should be extended to parliament. “We feel that the messages that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa gave to the Prime Minister today calling for greater institutional collaboration is a message that should be heard by Luís Montenegro”, said Inês Sousa Real.