Augusto Santos Silva announced on Wednesday in an interview with RTP that he will not be running for the presidency of Portugal.
This announcement ends speculation about the former President of the Assembly of the Republic’s potential candidacy to succeed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“No, I will not be a candidate,” the socialist stated at the start of the interview.
“Despite the many valued and important supporters I’ve received, which I sincerely appreciate, I’ve concluded that my candidacy wouldn’t be comprehensive enough to be strong, and consequently, the best candidacy would be that of an independent figure from civil society who can bring important topics to the table during the presidential campaign,” he explained, noting that from his “contacts,” he realized that his candidacy “would be divisive” and “lacks unifying capability.”
In Santos Silva’s view, “the existing candidacies are not enough.” “None of them,” he added.
“I’m making way for a strong, unifying, and independent candidacy, stepping down my availability, and I hope in the coming days a candidacy that is more comprehensive, stronger, and more unifying than mine will emerge,” he reiterated, refusing to name anyone or speculate about Sampaio da Nóvoa becoming a candidate.
For the former Assembly President, “just as the PS is not obliged to support a candidate simply because they possess a party card,” candidacies “do not have to form from the parties.”
Regarding the possibility of supporting António José Seguro, he declined to dismiss it, stating: “Nothing is out of the question as the presidential elections may involve a first and second round.”
Santos Silva emphasized that he does not concede to “this widespread notion” that if a “succession of monotony in the same tone of generalities” continues, the presidential election is as good as decided.
“This presidential election is a crucial moment for the millions of Portuguese concerned with the virus of intolerance, insecurity, prejudice, and even hatred subtly penetrating our society and gaining political expression in some sectors. It’s a crucial moment for an uprising movement to arise because the president’s primary responsibility is to address it,” he remarked.
Last week, Santos Silva expressed that António Vitorino’s decision not to run for the presidency prompted him to reconsider his own potential candidacy. In a Facebook post, he argued that the candidacies presented thus far “do not exhaust the political space nor the proposals and profiles that should be represented in the presidential elections.”
Former European Commissioner António Vitorino also stated that his candidacy “failed to garner the consensus” necessary to be unique in his political sphere.
“I will not be a candidate. I have always been consistent in stating that there should be only one candidate in this political area (…) and clearly, there’s an objective fact: my candidacy failed to gather the consensus required to be the sole candidacy in this area, and therefore, I will not run,” António Vitorino announced on SIC Notícias.
So far, candidates who have formally announced their bid for the presidency include António José Seguro, Henrique Gouveia e Melo, Luís Marques Mendes, António Filipe, Joana Amaral Dias, and André Pestana.
Augusto Ernesto Santos Silva was born on August 20, 1956, in Porto. He holds a degree in History from the Faculty of Arts of Porto, a doctorate in Sociology from ISCTE, and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Porto and a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the same university.
[News updated at 14:11]
