José Sena Goulão / Lusa
Former Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho
Pedro Passos Coelho does not exclude a return, he never considered himself “useless to politics”, and he did not tell anyone to rest assured that he would never return. He explains that he left because the “gimmick” was politically cheaper if he remained leader of the PSD, and it was necessary to change the conversation of the ‘troika’.
Former Social Democratic Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho he stated today that he “never considered himself useless in politics” and rejected ruling out a possible return, highlighting that if this were to happen “it would not be for the best reasons”.
At the conference that marked 5 years of the “+Liberdade” Institute, at the Museu do Oriente, in Lisbon, Pedro Passos Coelho went back eight yearswhen he left the leadership of the PSD, after being questioned by a member of the audience about his political future.
“I didn’t think I was useless for politics. And therefore, I never said that I would never do politics again, because I thought it was absolutely ridiculous to be compromising my future with a maxim to put everyone at ease: “No, gentlemen, sleep peacefully, never again”. I think it is absolutely unnecessary to make statements of this nature”, he defended.
Passos Coelho highlighted that he has said that he thinks “unlikely who will play such an active role” as the one he had when he was chief executive between 2011 and 2015, highlighting that “if this ever comes to fruition, It certainly doesn’t have to be, for the best of reasons.”.
“Why if everything goes well and things go so that the country is satisfied and the PSD, which is in the Government, is satisfied with its performance, Why should they now go to the chest of history?”, he questioned.
One day after having denied being back in active politicsPassos said he didn’t know “whether or not it would ever be necessary again” or whether he would be the “appointed person”, rejecting speculation, since he does not know what the circumstances will be. The former ruler insisted, however, that “not preparing any application”.
“I don’t even know when there are elections in my party. There will be a day like that, in two years. And so that’s not a question I’m thinking about,” he added.
The former PSD leader highlighted that You don’t need to “ask anyone for permission” to say what you think. “I was president of the PSD and prime minister, walk in my lifewhich does not involve any partisan intervention, in this type of context, and I say what I think, even if there is who doesn’t like“.
“And I don’t need ask permission from anyone to say what I think”, said Passos, who said that he had “perceived by cell phone” who had been “annoyed” and who had been “enthusiastic” with his recent interventions.
Regarding his departure from political life in 2017, Passos explained that he decided not to re-apply for leadership of the PSD “largely” because he thought that the government solution found, led by the PS and supported by PCP, BE and PEV, would “contraption”, was not to his liking and was “politically cheaper” if he were leading the Social Democrats.
“So I thought it was important that a solution that I didn’t think was desirable paid the political price for the support he had. Without the scarecrow of Passos Coelho’s return to unite the Left Bloc and the Communist Party. It seemed, to some extent, worth it”, he stated.
Secondly, the social democrat considered that he had become, at the time, a “limiting factor for PSD growth”, even though he had “no problem” with his performance in the Government.
“It was necessary to give the opportunity to change the conversation of the ‘troika‘. And therefore, I thought I should free the PSD from this conversation. And the PSD reasonably freed itself from this conversation. So much so that today it feels perfectly, or almost as perfectly, distant from that time as most other parties. And maybe that’s positive”, he defended.
This was Passos Coelho’s second public intervention in recent days. On Tuesday, the former leader of the PSD “set a serious precedent” the direct passage of Luis Neves from national director of the PJ to minister of Internal Administration, which he compared to departure of Mário Centeno from the Government to the Bank of Portugal.
In reaction, the PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, highlighted that placing Luís Neves as minister was a “highly praised choicepractically unanimously”, and that . The Prime Minister, Luis Montenegrowho was parliamentary leader of the PSD when Passos Coelho led the Government, did not want to comment on the “plot, however picturesque it may be”.
