The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, did not rule out on Wednesday that there may be early elections between May 11 and 18if the motion of trust that the government will present is rejected by Parliament.
Rebelo de Sousa spoke in statements to journalists in Viseu, in the north of the country, After a session at the Unicameral Assembly of the Republic (Parliament) where a motion of censure against the Executive and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced a motion of trust.
The president pointed out that if the Council of Ministers meets on Friday and approves the motion of trust, it is possible that he will send the initiative that same day to the Parliament that, he ventured, could schedule the debate and the vote for next Wednesday.
Montenegro is involved in a controversy for Spinumviva, a company in the hands of his wife and children that the prime minister founded before assuming the position and when he was not in active politics, which has received payments from other companies in which the politician had worked.
Due to this controversy, Parliament has voted in the last two weeks two censorship motionsone promoted by the ultra -rightist Chega and another by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), both rejected by the Chamber, the last one today.
In the case of a motion of trust, it is needed as a simple majority for both Approve it to reject it and the accounts do not go to Montenegrosince the second and the third parliamentary force, the Socialist Party and Chega, have anticipated that they will vote against and these two formations add 128 seats of the 230 of the hemicycle.
If trust is withdrawn to the government, it is up to the president Decide whether dissolve the parliament and call elections.
Rebelo de Sousa described the entire “very fast” process and He indicated that if the motion of trust is finally rejected, he will meet immediately with the matches the next day and with the State Council, canceling a trip that he had scheduled to Estonia.
After hearing the position of political formations and the State Council, which is an advisory body of the presidency, he said that “the first possible date” for early elections would be between May 11 and 18.
Asked if those statements mean that you will be inclined to convene early elections, The president said he has to work with “all scenarios.”
“There is the scenario that the motion of trust is approved, that would imply, depending on the debate and its weightingthat there was a conjugation of votes that allowed that, but it does not seem possible now. Based on today’s debate, if that were not possible, then I have the obligation to think about the alternative, “he said.
