António Vitorino
The lack of consensus or the “almost” that never comes to realize. Memories of the curriculum of the nearly presidential candidate.
António Vitorino It will not be a candidate for president of the Republic. The former minister of the race to Belém last week.
“I will not introduce myself to the candidate. I always said, I was always consistent, that There should be only one candidate in this political area (…) And manifestly there is an objective given: my candidacy could not gather consensus In order to be a unique candidacy of this area and so I will not present myself, ”he said.
“We all so surprised”Zoronized João Miguel Tavares, on the day of Vitorino’s announcement.
In the same program of, Pedro Mexia added that António Vitorino is like “one of those people who puts in the Badana of the books that was the finalist of the Ta Award… A person who did not earn, but it was worth not saying anything“.
The commentator Pedro Mexia recalls that António Vitorino it was “almost a candidate, a candidate, or was even to be Prime Minister, Secretary General of PS… ”.
“For over 25 years it is like this,” added João Miguel Tavares. “It would only advance if everyone gave up In favor of him, ”including Gouveia and Melo:” When he is a single candidate for some democratic elections, I think he will be present. “
What are the examples?
The PS, after going through a phase in which he had 4 leaders in 7 years (Almeida Santos, António Macedo, Vítor Constâncio and Jorge Sampaio), has applied a kind of, a list of those who occupy the key places in the party.
In more than a moment (post-sampaio and post-gutter) Antonio Vitorino was the name preferred by many socialists to lead the PS. Refused. Ferro Rodrigues was elected after Guterres and, when he left, Antonio Vitorino was one of the strongest names. Refused. José Sócrates followed.
The former European Commissioner has never been defeated in elections in Portugal. But it begins to be glued to the label of “almost”. Or to the label of withdrawal, of withdrawal.
Almost it was PS leaderat the beginning of the century. He moved away from the race even before he announced himself as a candidate.
Before, it was Defense Minister But it resigned in 1997 because of false statements delivered to finance, about an Alentejo property. Did not wait for the publication of the news of; He decided to resign when he received the journalist’s list of questions about this.
More recently, in 2023, he gave up (try) to be director general of the International Organization for Migration because I had lost in the first lap against Amy Pope. Here, it was defeated in some elections on the first lap; and retired later.
Finally, the candidacy for President of the Republic. It had been spoken for months, but saw that it was not the only candidate linked to the PS. He walked away.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, Zap //
