Miguel A. Lopes / LUSA
Luís Montenegro and Luís Marques Mendes
Prime Minister protagonist in a presidential campaign: “Is it normal” or do you want a “puppet” in Belém?
It was already known: the prime minister would appear in the campaign for the presidential elections, something that did not happen in Portugal.
It happened on the first official day of the campaign, this Sunday, when the Luís Marques Mendes was accompanied by Luís Montenegro.
Montenegro joined the first official campaign day of the presidential candidate supported by PSD and CDS-PP, Marques Mendes, at a lunch in Batalha.
Marques Mendes said that It is “normal and natural” the presence of Montenegro in his campaign, since his candidacy is supported by the PSD: “My candidacy is independent, but it is supported by the PSD, and, therefore, it is normal and natural that, in this case, the PSD leader appears. It was decided to appear at the beginning of the campaign, I am happy with that”.
Andre Ventura has a very different opinion: “I think the prime minister should not have entered the presidential campaign, I think it is a error that he committed. But above all it shows that he has fear of something. And if you’re afraid of who might be in the second round, and if you’re afraid of me going to the second round of the elections, it’s because you’re not doing things well.”
“It’s just that today (Sunday) it wasn’t just a prime minister who decided to join his party. He did something unprecedented, I think: he said that it was necessary to avoid having a certain type of candidate in the second round”, added the presidential candidate.
Ventura further stated that Luís Marques Mendes would be a puppet of Luís Montenegro: “We already have a Government that is ineffective, from my perspective, in most things. In fact, I think the Portuguese think the same. If we elect a President of the Republic to be a puppet of the Government…”.
And what did Montenegro say?
Luís Montenegro called for the concentration of votes in Marques Mendes, on the 18th, of “moderate socialists, liberals, social democrats and Christian democrats”, warning that voting for Cotrim or Seguro does not guarantee a second round without “two populist candidates”.
“We cannot fall into the trap of scattering votes and being tied to not having good choices in the second round, we have to concentrate the vote on Luís Marques Mendes now”, he appealed.
“Voting for Cotrim Figueiredo, voting for António José Seguro, does not guarantee the possibility of avoiding that there is in Portugal a second round of presidential elections where they could be simultaneously two populists. We have to avoid and concentrate the vote”, he asked, in an implicit reference to the candidates André Ventura and Henrique Gouveia e Melo.
His speech also led to criticism. José Luís Carneirogeneral secretary of the PS, commented that Luís Montenegro has spread the idea that a candidate supported by the AD is closer to the Government: “This shows that Montenegro does not reflect well in the content of the words it transmits to the Portuguese”.
