EIn an interview with the chairman of the board of directors of the Impresa group, Francisco Pinto Balseman, for today’s edition of the podcast “Leave the world a better place”, the head of state recalls that in recent years he has warned that “the political system has been unbalanced” and says: “I think she is composing” .

“On the one hand, it was very important that there was a strong area of ​​power, and this area of ​​power became weak from a certain moment, was undermined by disagreements, many of which are insurmountable, between the ruling party and its supporters,” points out, referring to the so-called “Geringonsu ”, consisting of PS and left parties.

According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “the Portuguese solved” this problem by giving the Socialists an absolute majority in the legislative assembly of January 30 this year.

“But then there was a problem on the right,” he continues, arguing that the elimination of the SDP and SDO-PP after the government of Pedro Passos Coelho came to power led to “an increase in the number of parties from the SDP” – Chega, Liberal Initiative. e Aliança — “and suddenly five instead of two.”

The President of the Republic adds that in this context, “the centre-right, in order to come to power, will have to come together to find solutions with a very strong leadership that can only be from the strongest party that the PSD has ever been”, which qualifies as “complicated a task”.

Asked by Balsemão if Luis Montenegro thought it was a good decision for the PSD, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza replied: “I don’t like to comment on party decisions, I don’t think the president should comment on party decisions. , I have witnessed that an effort has been made that has not been seen in the SDP for a long time – it is not total, it is not 100%, but a very big effort – to unite people who have been alienated or divided for a long time.”

“The SDP had a characteristic well known to us: they could get slapped, and it was even an aspect of the fact that they always had alternatives to themselves, but when the moment of truth came, which ceased to exist after a certain point, it seems that the beginning of this path [de Luís Montenegro]and this is the only way to make painstaking, difficult, complex reconstruction that will benefit the system,” he concludes.

Luis Montenegro received 72.5% of the vote in a direct vote on May 28, in which he met with Jorge Moreira da Silva, and assumed the presidency of the 40th Congress of the PSD, which took place from July 1 to 3 in Porto, replacing Rui Rio who has led the party since January 2018.

On July 5, the President of the Republic received Luis Montenegro at an audience at the Palacio de Belen, accompanied by a delegation consisting of Paulo Rangel, Margarida Balceira Lopez and Hugo Soares.

In this interview with Balseman, the head of state considers it his “duties” of his second term to ensure that “the absolute majority do everything in their power to take advantage of the scarce resources that exist between now and 2025/2026” coming from the European Union, and on the other on the other hand, that “whoever leads the center-right opposition does everything to have a strong formula that can become an alternative to reality, which will be eight or ten years old one of these days.”

“We need right-wing or right-wing centrists of those who restore federative capacity and present themselves in a position to be in the government of Portugal,” he emphasizes.

Regarding the previous leadership of the SDP, Rui Río, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza states: “We have to admit that in the end she was faced with a situation that she partly inherited, which was the collapse of the SDP, she exploded at that time.” And then she had to constantly, with very strong splits, manage this in the opposition.

Asked if he understands that Chega left the SDP, the President of the Republic replies that yes, “this is also a party from the SDP”, with a “very strong evangelical base”, but that she inherited from the SDP “an area that some call social populist or socially competitive.

According to the head of state, whoever formed the “Liberal Initiative” “also did not recognize himself in the SDP, because he believed that the SDP was not as liberal as under the previous government,” and pointed out that “in addition, it nevertheless came out [do PSD] Aliança, founded and led by Pedro Santana López.

On the last day of the PSD Congress, 3 July, the President of the Republic felt that Luis Montenegro was starting a “closer rapprochement with the President of the Republic” and paving the way for a “special collaboration”, which he welcomed.

“From what I have seen, I register a new fact regarding the President of the Portuguese Republic, namely: where there was institutional cooperation in the recent past, there is special cooperation. Portuguese Republic. I’m registering and I’m happy with it.” , Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Shortly before that, in her closing speech, Montenegro sent to the President of the Republic “a message of the full readiness of the new leadership of the PSD to continue with a sense of loyalty and institutional cooperation the relations of closeness and cooperation that democracy and the Portuguese demand and deserve.”

The new PSD National Political Commission includes Inés Domingos, economic adviser to the President of the Republic.

Read also: Marcelo Rebelo de Souza admits it is currently ‘very hard to manage’