Sebastião Bugalho, PSD MEP.
He is an MEP, but “spends time here in Portugal”: Sebastião Bugalho has already been to 80 municipalities campaigning for local councils. In three of them, he replaced Luís Montenegro.
Sebastião Bugalho has worked in Brussels since being elected MEP last year, as head of the PSD list, but has been one of the most present figures in the campaign for the local elections, scheduled for next Sunday, the 12th.
Traveling through the municipalities where Montenegro cannot be, Bugalho has already visited more than 80 municipalities, three of them replacing Luís Montenegro, says , who says he knows that it is the mayoral candidates themselves who ask for the young politician’s presence, for reasons of visibility.
The MEP has also temporarily assumed the leadership presence that would traditionally fall to Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. He assumes himself as a kind of informal number three of the party, positioning himself as a natural replacement for Hugo Soares.
“I was not replacing the prime minister, I was on behalf of the party leadership and the party president. The PSD’s general secretary only replaces the president of the PSD, what could happen occasionally is that I replace the general secretary”said Bugalho in Cascais.
And Bugalho does his homework on these occasional visits to the municipalities. This was the case with the visit to Águeda on September 28, where it was noted in his speech that he previously studied the candidates, the results of the last local elections and the political context of the region, between criticisms of the PS and shows of respect for the social-democratic hierarchy — in Viseu and Covilhã, he made a point of praising local candidates, historical party figures and ministers linked to the municipalities visited.
A blessing from Luís Montenegro has been crucial. The PSD leader has publicly recognized Bugalho’s role in the municipal campaign, describing him as a “very important help”. Due to his “responsibilities as prime minister” he has to “use some of our highest representatives and Sebastião is one of them”, said Montenegro.
But within the PSD, one of the figures that most appears before the Portuguese has been very critical of this performance. Commentator Miguel Morgado believes that Bugalho’s appearances “mean that MEPs are useless.”
“Is he an MEP and does he spend his time here in Portugal? If he is the leader of the PSD bench, Sebastião Bugalho, he should be there. I don’t know, there are meetings, Russia is invading, the major reforms in Europe and he spends his time here?”, asks the young MEP’s former teacher.
“There are aspirations there, We already understand what he is doing: he is preparing a kind of party succession for 10 years, 15 yearsokay, nothing against it. But then don’t ask me to vote for MEPs who spend time here”, said Morgado.
