“What’s worse for the country is better for Ventura”

The most difficult year of all for Marcelo, very cautious for Montenegro; the dome of Pedro Nuno and the tranquility of Ventura.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa appeared “very defeatist” in his New Year’s, very focused on international issues, but also with internal suggestions.

This is because the President of the Republic “enters the most difficult year of his political life”according to Rui Pedro Antunes. “It will be a complicated 15 months”, warns the political editor on the radio.

But there is also warning to potential opponents: Marcelo “cannot be devalued, political experience is important – and it is important not to be against it. It’s good they’re not against himeven more so if he feels harassed and because he will soon leave. When it’s chopped, it goes better.”

One Free Marcelo is “more dangerous” and Rui Pedro predicts a speech in 2026 that will be even more “complicated”, because this President of the Republic “does not need effective power to exercise it”.

Taking advantage of the beginning of the year, the political expert took the opportunity to predict the year of Luís Montenegro, Pedro Nuno Santos and André Ventura.

Luis Montenegro should enter the year “very cautious”, mainly in relation to the choice of candidate for the presidential elections, and because he is “closer to losing than winning” the municipal elections in September this year.

It will be a “very difficult” year for the prime minister; and not having the president by his side increases this difficulty.

Pedro Nuno Santos The year also begins with “many difficulties”. Especially because, ironizes Rui Pedro Antunes, “the leader of the opposition is Mário Centeno” – who already had a “very good performance in attacking the deficit and the Secretary General of the Government”, who would be but left before taking office.

The PS could even win the European elections (which it won last year), the municipal elections, Pedro Nuno could appear ahead in the polls and, even so, the majority in Parliament remains right-wing. The PS general secretary is “in the middle of a dome, where it is difficult to get out.”

Already Andre Ventura will be a year “more peaceful”. He will continue to “blackmail” the Government because of the State Budget for 2026, he should rise in the municipal elections, as the national implementation of Chega has grown, and he could even go to the second round of the presidential elections if he is a candidate.

But there is another perspective on Chega’s president: “Supposedly he is the most patriotic, but he is always better the worse the country is: if there is more insecurity, more economic problems, more problems with immigration, André Ventura is better off”.

“I don’t know if the year will be good or bad for the country but, the worse it is for the country, the better it is for André Ventura. It’s whoever has the most comfortable year, because whoever has the least to lose”, concluded the political commentator.