presidencia.pt
Cavaco Silva, former President of the Republic
Everything to target Marques Mendes, while “seeking to rewrite the history of a politician of exceptional caliber”.
At the beginning of November, already looking ahead to the presidential elections, Andre Ventura said he wants to be known as “heir” of Francisco Sá Carneiro.
It is a reinforcement of what the Chega leader said two years ago, when closing his party’s convention: “I want to tell you that I feel as ready today as I know Sá Carneiro felt to be prime minister in 1979. And I am as ready to give my life for this country. As he was to transform Portugal”.
Last week, João Cotrim de Figueiredo highlighted the “reformism” by Sá Carneirowhen in its greatest political references.
This Monday, Henrique Gouveia e Melo stated: “Today’s social democrats should be more inspired by Sá Carneiro. These neoliberalisms that surround us often forget that the market does not solve everything”, associating itself with the legacy of Sá Carneirodescribes: “There is a need for a State that regulates and guarantees the Social State and social elevators”.
Cavaco Silva doesn’t like it
To Aníbal Cavaco Silvahearing these associations is “intolerable”.
In , Cavaco recalls that he was Minister of Finance in the Government of Sá Carneiro. And therefore: “I can’t help but feel shocked with an attempt to appropriation of his name by at least three presidential candidates, André Ventura, João Cotrim de Figueiredo and Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who, on an ethical, political, social and economic level, are almost in the antipodes of what Francisco Sá Carneiro defended”.
The former president of the Republic describes Sá Carneiro as a “defender of modern social democracy, a humanist, a man of firm principles, far from both state socialism and a society dominated by the sacralization of the market in the name of efficiency”.
Furthermore, adds Cavaco Silva, the former prime minister “wanted to make Portugal a Western-style democracy in which the primacy of dignity and affirmation of the human person, solidarity and social justice prevailed”.
“I therefore consider intolerable that in the ongoing electoral campaign, with the aim of attack candidate Luís Brands Mendeswe seek to rewrite the history of a politician of exceptional caliber like Francisco Sá Carneiro”, concludes Cavaco Silva.
Curiously, Marques Mendes spoke about Sá Carneiro precisely this Monday, when addressing the presence of Luís Montenegro at the start of his electoral campaign, the day before.
“For those who say that it is an act of weakness for the Prime Minister to have him in the campaign, I say that it is an act of courage and strength and that it is the most natural thing in the democratic world. And for those who are always talking about Sá Carneiro, know that Sá Carneiro died participating in a presidential campaign“, commented the candidate, recalling the night of December 4, 1980, when Sá Carneiro died during Soares Carneiro’s presidential campaign.
