Marques Mendes is having a “strange” feeling on television

The stance of a candidate for president is similar to the stance of a commentator. Leading vaccination would be a “disaster”.

Luis Brands Mendes He once again reinforced that he is an independent candidate for President of the Republic, without influence from the PSD – despite the public support of the party he once led.

“I don’t have a monopoly on independence, nobody has. But I have already proven it”, he stated in , also rejecting the idea that the PSD controls almost everything in current Portuguese politics: “The Government of Portugal is a minority, it is not a Government with an absolute majority. It is very precarious.”

The candidate remembers that he has already praised one of his competitors several times, Gouveia e Melofor whom he has “enormous personal esteem”.

But be experienced in politics is different: “The experience you have in a vaccination process is not the same experience you need in the presidency of the Republic” – in fact, if Marques Mendes were invited to running a vaccination process, “it would be a disaster”.

“I don’t have experience for that. Everyone is for what they are and we must be humble”, he considered.

Luís Marques Mendes confessed that there are several moments when does not appreciate the Government’s speech.

The most recent example was the speech by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, when he said that “Portugal becomes more Portugal” thanks to the new nationality law.

Marques Mendes reacts: “Some statements by the Minister of the Presidency were not at all happy. Look, Portugal has now become more Portugal, I don’t think this is happy.”

I know He arrives win legislative elections, and if Marques Mendes is president of the Republic, André Ventura’s party takes possession. “Because that’s what the Constitution says, because that’s our political practice. Chega’s voters are as Portuguese as the others.”

The demand he will make is that a possible Chega Government program cannot have unconstitutional measures.

Candidate or commentator?

At a certain point in the interview, Marques Mendes was invited to evaluate the mandate of the current Attorney General of the Republic, Amadeu Guerra. He refused and justified: “It is not the role of a President of the Republic to give a public assessment of the mandate of an Attorney General. When a person trivializes the word, the word loses its effectiveness.”

The former PSD president assures that commenting on everything “not your style”; he prefers to be more surgical in moments and subjects, moving away from Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s style.

However – and once again – your The stance of a candidate for President of the Republic was similar to the stance of a commentator television.

“I understand: it was many years”, begins by analyzing Bruno Vieira Amaral. “There was that familiarity, that ease, that pseudo-interview tone, but in which the journalist is more point than interviewer, there are no difficult questions”.

And now, Marques Mendes “can’t free himself that familiar, convivial tone, with the journalist. And this creates a feeling a little strange”, continued the commentator on the radio.

Returning to the interview on RTP, Marques Mendes assured that “it doesn’t even cross his mind” to return to political commentary if he loses the presidential elections: “It’s a closed door”.