Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on the night of the 2016 presidential elections
Vítor Matos looks at the 10 years of his mandate, focuses on the final part and is unable to anticipate the near future.
This was the last week of Marcelo Rebelo de Souza while President of the Republic.
The still head of state will leave his position next Monday, when the elected president, , takes office.
Behind us, there are 10 years of a President of the Republic different from the previous ones. Compared to Cavaco Silva or even Jorge Sampaio, he was a president closer to the people.
In 2016, when he won the presidential elections, there was a context: Cavaco, troika – which removed people from political power – and the contraption.
Marcelo, when appearing in Belém, brought something new: proximity to people. “Like Mário Soares, he is a bourgeois elitist but he manages to create a connection with people”, begins describing Vítor Matos.
Vítor is the journalist who, in 2012, wrote a biography about Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
This closeness was not surprising: “Marcelo always had this attitude of be himself. In truth, never cheated anyonein the sense of saying that it was going to be what it had always been.”
People knew what to expect, they shouldn’t have expectations – Marcelo would not create a “more institutional character”continues Vítor, in .
But there was a big difference in the final stage of the second term: “The excessive trivialization and desacralization of power”.
Marcelo never stopped being institutional, as he was supposed to be. “But there was a overexposure, deliberatewhich is the characteristic that marks his presidency.”
The still President of the Republic, since he will remain in “reserva” at a political level. He won’t show up, he won’t talk. Because, when you leave politics, “you really have to leave”.
Vítor Matos doesn’t really know how he’s going to do this: “That’s going against his nature. In office he didn’t go against his nature, commenting on everything and anything. If he remained silent, it would be like entering a monastery. I can’t anticipate what’s coming.”
