António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Nuno Melo, Minister of Defense
Free and BE leaders reinforce that they want Montenegro in the debate, Pan may be represented by someone else.
After Rui Tavares, Mariana Mortágua: BE Coordinator said today that only accepts to debate with Luís Montenegro as a representative of the PSD/CDS-PP coalition, refuse that can be replaced by the leader of CDS-PP, Nuno Melo.
“It is with Luís Montenegro that I want to debate housing and Nuno Melo may present themselves to debates, the CDS may present themselves to debates, but this does not take the responsibility of Luís Montenegro. I will not debate with Nuno Melo to replace Luís Montenegro,” said Mariana Mortágua, in statements to journalists in Futurália, Lisbon.
The Left Block joins free in the group of parties that have already refused to debate with Nuno Melo as representative of the coalition between social democrats and centrists.
The Free spokesman said Thursday that he only discusses the PSD/CDS-PP coalition if it is represented by Luís Montenegro, and criticized the parties and televisions, said, were accepting the proposed molds by the Prime Minister.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters in Lisbon, Rui Tavares stated that “You will only debate with Luís Montenegro” and not with the CDS-PP leader, because Nuno Melo, unlike the other party leaders, “He is not a candidate for prime minister”.
O PAN follow this speech. Inês de Sousa Real argued that “If CDS-PP wants to be present in the debates, which competes alone to electionson equal circumstances with other political forces. ”“ It makes us no sense that Montenegro hides behind Nuno Melo. It is being hiding from the Portuguese, ”he added.
PAN does not yet have a definitive decision on participation in the discussion with social democrats and centrists, but on the table is possibility “Request the representation of another member of the list”. I.e, It would not be the leader Inês de Sousa Real to be present.
“Study”
The PSD president and prime minister today said he was dirty with criticism of the opposition to the decision of the coalition sharing participation in the television debates between Luís Montenegro and Nuno Melo, without expressing any intention of retreat.
At the end of a meeting with the municipalities involved in the Parque Cidades do Tejo Project, in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Luís Montenegro shot: “I see with some stun. The decision we made in the Democratic Alliance (AD) to use the two political leaders of the two parties in the election campaign is a political decision that is ours and we assume and respond for it. Accuse me of running away from debates is totally unjustified, ”he said.
Montenegro repeated, as he had done on social networks, that he was in 18 parliamentary debates with all the parties in the last year and assured that he will also participate in the debates with all the political forces simultaneously.
“I think that should not be understood as disrespect The circumstance of the leader of a party, the party with the most representation, the PSD, is in most debates and the leader of the other party could also participate in the election campaign, ”he said, stressing that, contrary to what happened in 2024, the CDS-PP has parliamentary representation.
Asked about the refusal, already manifested by the free, to discuss with the leader of the CDS-PP, Montenegro returned the accusations of fear that have been imputed to him.
“I believe that It seems that those who are afraid to discuss is the one who presents problems the participation of the president of the CDS in the debates. For me, as the leader of this coalition, I am very quiet because I know that Dr. Nuno Melo, in the debates in which he will participate, will represent very well the political proposal of AD, ”said Montenegro.
