ANTÓNIO PEDRO SANTOS/LUSA
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Pedro Passos Coelho
Former PSD leader remains silent: “I do not wish to make any comment or statement regarding the presidential election.”
Former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho will remain silent in the second round of the presidential elections, which will be contested by António José Seguro and André Ventura on February 8th.
“I do not wish to make any comments or statements regarding the presidential elections”wrote the former leader of the PSD and the Government in response to a written question from the Lusa agency.
Passos Coelho did not make any statement about the presidential elections until Sunday, election day, and should maintain the same stance regarding the second round.
In September, asked if he was bothered by the words of André Ventura who, when he announced that he is a candidate for Belém, also admitted that he preferred that Passos Coelho had run as a candidate, the former social-democratic leader: “I have nothing to see with the context in which the presidential elections are taking place”.
António José Seguro and André Ventura will compete in the second round of the presidential elections, on February 8, after, on Sunday, the candidate supported by the PS won 31% of the votes and Ventura, leader of Chega, obtained 23%. Luís Marques Mendes, candidate supported by the PSD, came in fifth place, with 11.3% of the votes, behind Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo (12.3%) and João Cotrim Figueiredo (16.0%), supported by the Liberal Initiative.
