Porto de Mós, Portugal, May 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The PSD leader refused to comment on Friday on scenarios that would be more adverse to the Social Democrats after the elections, saying that this is futurology, and targeted the PS leader, saying that the choice of a reliable and stable prime minister is at stake.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists in the middle of a street campaign in Porto de Mós, in the district of Leiria, where his main message - and image - was aimed at senior citizens.
When asked about the possibility of the AD - PSD/CDS coalition coming out of the elections with a reduced majority without guarantees of governability, and also about the possibility of having to decide whether or not to support a socialist government, Luís Montenegro refused to answer.
Instead, he raised the issue of the choice of prime minister in the elections on the 18th and attacked Pedro Nuno Santos, particularly in relation to the socialist's positions on strike law over the years.
"As soon as there is the slightest democratic or political confrontation, some present their vision, opinion, and conviction, but others opt for easy and gratuitous insults. The Portuguese people also have to choose between the best qualified to be prime minister and those who can lead a government at a challenging time from an internal and external point of view," he said.
According to the PSD president, the Portuguese people should look for government leadership and choose someone capable of representing Portugal in Europe who can be an image of stability, trust and reliability.
"Those who change their minds often, who at the slightest contact with public and political discussion slip into insults, do so because they lack leadership skills and are incapable of representing Portugal at the highest level," he stressed, with the head of the AD list for the Leiria constituency, Minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes, at his side.
On this point, still indirectly targeting the PS secretary-general, the PSD leader considered that a government's stability also depends on its leader's stability.
"A party leader who changes his mind often, who has no deep convictions and always blows with the wind, can never be a strong prime minister. And I see that from the opposition side," he said.
Asked whether the Portuguese people deserve to know what will happen to them the day after the legislative elections in the absence of a clear majority on the right or left in parliament, the PSD leader replied: "They deserve to know - and for my part, they already know how I am capable of behaving even in the circumstances of a narrow victory, as happened a year ago".
"People have to choose and, within that choice, ensure stability. It's in their hands," he warned, but without clarifying whether he accepts the principle of reciprocity with the PS, i.e. whether he would allow a minority socialist government.
"I'm not going to stray from the path, predict the future or come up with scenarios, because people don't vote based on scenarios. They vote for who they believe will move the country forward," he said.
Luís Montenegro also refused to comment on polls indicating that the AD is not gaining ground on the PS, countering with his personal experience in opinion polls.
"I've been hearing that all my life; if it were by that reasoning, I would never have been prime minister. In this campaign, the street tells us that the Portuguese trust us," he responded.
As soon as he arrived in Porto de Mós, Luís Montenegro went up to the first floor of a house to kiss an elderly lady who was waiting for him on the balcony with a PSD flag.
On his way to the municipal market, the PSD president spoke to shopkeepers, but prioritised his contacts with older citizens - an electorate that the AD wants to contest with the PS.
PMF/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
