Gouveia e Melo decided to be a candidate when Marcelo wanted to stop him; Marcelo says this never happened

An article in a newspaper indicated that the President of the Republic wanted to keep Gouveia e Melo as chief of the Navy’s General Staff.

The admiral Gouveia e Melo reveals that he only decided to move on to Belém when he read a news story in Expresso that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa intended to stop his candidacy presidential through his reappointment as head of the Navy.

“It was this article that made me define the course. Because when I read it, I was really mad“, states the former Chief of Staff of the Navy, in the book – a long interview conducted by the journalist and deputy director of Diário de Notícias, Valentina Marcelino – which will be put on sale next Thursday and launched on the 24th, with the approval of Porto Editora.

The article, written by journalist Vitor Matos, published in October 2024, indicated that Marcelo intended to reappoint Gouveia e Melo as chief of the General Staff of the Navy to avoid his presidential candidacy, but this only accepted if there was an investment significant increase in naval strength, even mentioning the purchase of more submarines.

Gouveia e Melo, who had already referred to an attempt to stop his candidacy for Belém through his promotion to head of the Armed Forces, without indicating names or dates, this time points the finger at the President of the Republic and the Government.

“In fact, the Government – and also you President of the Republic – They didn’t seem interested in anything about the defense.in addition to making some corrections to the military’s salaries. So, I deduced that what they wanted was for me to stay tied to the Navy with the eventual ‘prize’ of, in the end, being able to become CEMGFA and reach the top of the military career. They thought, I speculate, that I would be very happy to have given me the opportunity”, he says.

“I never said that”

Marcelo has already reacted, guaranteeing that the reason is false: “I did not give any interview in which I said what I am told I said. It doesn’t exist.”

“You can’t find any interview of mine in which I spoke about issues of leadership of the Armed Forces. There is no interview with my words speaking about who is chief, who is not chief, who should be, who should not be chief of the Armed Forces. And speaking out about who should or should not be a candidate for president”, commented the President of the Republic, in conversation with journalists in Vila Viçosa.

The admiral who headed the Navy and the process of vaccination against the idea that the strategy they intended to stop his candidacy was completely flawed: “These people really didn’t know me…that’s the only thing I would never do: be a prince just to cut ribbons”.

“Well, they wanted to give me importance without giving me the power to do anything. Thank you very much. That’s when I decided: I’m going to enter the field of real decisions, politics”, he assures.

Autism and “killer phrase”

Henrique Gouveia e Melo spares no criticism of political power, such as the existence of “a certain autism in the winds of change and a dangerous alienation from what was approaching”, giving the example of the international scene and the possible re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

“I thought, ‘if you guys aren’t even worried, staying doesn’t make sense, my contribution can only be useful abroad, precisely in the political world’”, he admits.

In the 236-page book, Gouveia e Melo accuses Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of having made a “very annoying thing” when the question of Admiral Mendes Calado’s succession as head of the Navy arose in 2021, and he said that “it was not necessary for Admiral Gouveia e Melo to push Admiral Mendes Calado”.

“This sentence was truly murderer”, maintains the now candidate for Belém, stating that he did not push anyone and that Marcelo later recognized him. But, like these statements and also the fact that Mendes Calado was “angry with the Government” at the time, everything “came together to create a difficult, knife-edge environment”.

Regarding the January 18 presidential elections, Henrique Gouveia e Melo states that his “main opponent” is not in the elections, but in the “prejudice disguised as democracy.”

Regarding Luís’ criticism Mendes Brands, that the election of Gouveia e Melo could be “a huge risk, even a danger to democracy”, the admiral simply responds: “I felt that the candidate Luís Marques Mendes had enraged for a moment…”