Mário Cruz / Lusa
The former chief of the Armada, Admiral Henrique Gouveia and Melo
The candidate who is not a candidate presents himself as an apartidal and is “between socialism and social democracy.” And it defends liberal democracy, whose values “are being concerned”.
After a lot – and – Henrique Gouveia and Melo He finally decided to clarify his political position.
The admiral is politically positioned “between socialism and social democracydefending liberal democracy as a political regime, ”said Thursday.
In an opinion article published in, entitled “Honor Democracy”, to succeed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa focused on his text in liberal democracywhose values “are being put into question”, and in Bethlehemnamely what a president should do and the profile he must have – “exempt and independent of party loyalties.”
Still, he did not officially announce his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic.
“We must want a party -free president”
The former chief of the armed state argues that “transforming the presidency into an appendix to party interests is a threat The ability of liberal democracy to maintain a balanced and functional system. ”
“Bridges are not built on networks of influence, comparatives or political-party intrigues, but about consensus based on humanitarian values, the desire for freedom, prosperity and effective solidarity, and, above all, in the uncompromising defense of liberal democracy.” , read in the text, after Luís Mendes Markswhich is already officially presidential candidate, arguing that the next tenant in Belém must have one.
The military in the reserve supports the thesis that “no president can be truly ‘of all’ if it is clearly associated with a political factionbecause it will not have the independence necessary to represent the collective interest ”.
“The president is not at the service of the partiesis at the service of the Portuguese and Portugal. It guarantees the constitution, the union and integrity of the country and is therefore a power-compliance with a democratic system balanced in the service of freedom, safety, equity and prosperity of the Portuguese and, consequently, of Portugal, ”he reinforces.
One of the president’s most important informal powers, continues Gouveia and Melo, “ The Power of the Word“:“ When the president speaks, he is not an ordinary citizen, he is the Republic. It has an obligation to use the word following the rules of relevance, exemption, balance, containment and gravitous. ”
“At the current conjuncture, a president without the necessary independence tapes democracy. Therefore, in the good of the democratic system, We must want an exempt and independent president of party loyalties“He holds.
Given the absence of a parliamentary majority in the Assembly of the Republic, the admiral accuses the main parties of having “the temptation” of seeking to elect a head of state “aligned with his political area”, to function as a “party instrument to unbalance or sustain current governance ”.
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For Gouveia and Melo, “a political system-free political system is a more fragile system, without scructum and, consequently, more vulnerable to the winds that blow today, the radicalization and proliferation of autocratic and iliberal ideas”.
In the same article, the military in Reserve argues that a President of the Republic should only exercise the power to dissolve Parliament or dismiss the government “When there is a strong conviction that the contract between governors and rulers was significantly compromised”whether by “one insatiable loss of confidence of the people in Parliament and/or government in functions ”, by“ a serious disadvantage between the government’s practices and the will previously suffocated by the people ”or by an“ attempt to usurpation of power and subversion of the constitution, on the sidelines of law”.
The admiral does not see the approval of the state budget as a condition to maintain an executive in office.
Threats and Justice
At a conjuncture in which the “fundamental values of republican ethics and liberal democracies are being concerned” and the threat “no longer comes from the east”, Gouveia and Melo argues that it is demanded from political actors “responsibility, transparency and courage ”.
Defending a Foul justicea “independent and competent” public administration that does not serve as “support or springboard for political clientele” and a “free market economy”, the admiral also considers that “being tolerant democracy by nature, it should not, in its own defense allow intolerant ideas and practices, at the risk of these compromise their own democracy. ”
