The Socialist Alexandra Leitão refuted claims on Thursday that she called for the resignation of Pedro Nuno Santos from his position as Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), following a report published on Tuesday by Sábado magazine.
“It is absolutely false that Alexandra Leitão requested the resignation of Pedro Nuno Santos from his position as Secretary-General of the PS, as stated by Sábado magazine. At no point, during the National Secretariat meeting or outside of it on election night, did Alexandra Leitão express or support such a position,” according to a statement sent to newsrooms.
Leitão, a candidate for the presidency of Lisbon City Hall (CML), further emphasized that “this statement has no basis and constitutes a gross error,” while also condemning the fact that “at no time was she contacted to confirm the truth of the information published, nor was there any attempt to validate it with members of the National Secretariat present at the meeting, who could quickly refute such a claim.”
The controversy stems from an article titled ‘Os bastidores da noite mais dura do PS‘, which suggested that Alexandra Leitão was “one of the most vocal in advocating for Pedro Nuno Santos’s resignation.” “She was particularly harsh,” according to a socialist source cited in the magazine.
It is notable that the snap legislative elections last Sunday, won by AD, have significantly impacted the PS. In his speech acknowledging the defeat, Pedro Nuno Santos announced that he requested the party’s president to call a National Commission meeting for Saturday to hold internal elections, in which he will not be a candidate.
According to provisional results, with votes from expatriates yet to be counted, the PS lost 20 seats and currently holds 58 seats in parliament, with a result of 23.38%, equating to 1,394,491 votes.
With this outcome, the PS is nearly tied with Chega and, compared to the same results from the previous year, excluding expatriate votes, has lost approximately 365,000 votes over the course of a year.
[Updated at 09:27]
