ANTONIO PEDRO SANTOS/LUSA
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (L), flanked by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro (R).
“We were happy and we were effective,” said the prime minister. “We were happy and we knew it”, added the still President of the Republic, who considers Montenegro “very fast”.
The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, thanked the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, for the institutional collaboration they maintained for almost two years and considered that they were happy and effective, often anticipating problems.
“We were happy and we were effective”said Luís Montenegro, at the official residence of São Bento, in Lisbon, in front of the media.
With Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at his side, the head of the PSD/CDS-PP Government considered that the two were “solving all the problems” that it was necessary to overcome and “often anticipating problems”.
President of the Republic and Prime Minister spoke sitting in two armchairs, in the Fireplace Room of the official residence of São Bento, in Lisbon, in an informal conversation.
Before that, there was a greeting session to the outgoing President of the Republic by all the ministers and secretaries of State of the PSD/CDS-PP Government, and a family photo.
“We were happy and we knew”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also said, about the almost two years of cohabitation with Luís Montenegro, that they were happy and knew, saying that in strategic terms they agreed on the essentials.
The President of the Republic recalled the phrase “we were happy and we didn’t know” that he used about the period of more than eight years in which he lived with the former Prime Minister, António Costa, from the PS.
“Here, I would define: We were happy and we knew”he countered, about his coexistence with the head of the PSD/CDS-PP Government.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “they were two very intense years” with “permanent institutional cooperation, without problems”, in which they were “in agreement on the essentials of the strategies, external and internal”.
Regarding Luís Montenegro, he added: “The Prime Minister is very quick, he is very intuitive, he likes to anticipate political time. Other times he likes to make the media wait politically, he likes the surprise effect, and he manages this in a way that the media cannot predict, cannot anticipate.”
