Luís Marques Mendes says the last few weeks have been disastrous for democracy. The presidential candidate appeals to a clean campaign that does not further remove the Portuguese from politics.
Presidential candidate Luis Marques Mendes said on Sunday in Braga that the last few weeks “were a complete disaster for democracy,” and considered that the political crisis was everyone’s fault and “could and had been avoided.”
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a national meeting on local and regional press, Marques Mendes called for the campaign for early legislatures to be based on causes and not cases, so as not to further aggravate the “divorce” between people and parties.
“This crisis, in the first place, could and should have been avoided, I think it was much better for the country. This crisis is doing nothing well to democracy, only helps, in my opinion, to aggravate divorce between people and parties,” he said.
Pointing out that there “Kagn for everyone” In the crisis that led to the fall of the government and the marking of early elections, Marques Mendes reiterated that the last weeks were a disaster.
“A disaster for politics, a disaster for parties, a disaster for governments, a disaster for oppositions, a disaster for democracy. If the parties do not realize this, then they are not realizing anything that is happening,” he warned.
In his opinion, the only way not to further aggravate divorce between people and parties “is now there is a positive campaign”, with debate of ideas and based on causes rather than cases “.
“The appeal I do is to change their lives (…). If the campaign is founded on cases and houses, then they can be sure that abstention will increase and divorce between politicians and people will get worse,” he says.
Asked if the presidential candidates who run for parties may benefit from the discontent of the Portuguese, Marques Mendes assumed to have doubts, but recalled that, for example, Mario Soares, Jorge Sampaio and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “were all elected and all with party support.”
“I don’t know if it will be a benefit [concorrer sem o apoio de partidos] “He said.
Stressed that parties are part of democracy, that there is no democracy without parties and that the presidency of the Republic “It is the most political organ of all.”
“Which means that those who run for presidency is a politician,” he said.
