The Prime Minister-designate, Luís Montenegro, announced today that he will present the composition of the future government to the President of the Republic on March 28, having set the date of the inauguration with the Head of State for April 2.
This announcement was made by Luís Montenegro at the Belém Palace, after a short audience of around 20 minutes with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the second in a few hours during which he was appointed Prime Minister.
The president of the PSD and leader of the AD (a pre-election coalition that also included the CDS-PP and the PPM) came out smiling and made a short statement to the media to say, firstly, that “the President of the Republic has appointed him to form the government”.
“It was important to do it today – from the 20th to the 21st – despite this late hour, since tomorrow morning [today] I will have a meeting with the President of the European Commission and with my fellow leaders of the political parties that make up the European People’s Party,” he explained.
The PSD president explained that, due to his schedule, it was “not feasible” for him to be nominated in the morning and, on the other hand, “it was useful to take part in these meetings as prime minister-designate”.
“I have agreed with the President of the Republic that, eight days from today, on the 28th, I will come to present him with the composition of the future government, and I have also agreed with him that the date of the inauguration will be April 2nd,” he said.
Without answering any questions, Montenegro said goodbye, wishing everyone “a good job and a good rest”.
“We’ll see each other in the next few days,” he said.
Today, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, appointed Luís Montenegro as Prime Minister, during an audience with the PSD president.
“The President of the Republic having heard the parties and coalitions of parties that stood in the March 10 elections to the Assembly of the Republic and obtained seats, the Democratic Alliance having won the elections in terms of seats and votes, and the Secretary General of the Socialist Party having acknowledged and confirmed that he would be leader of the Opposition, the President of the Republic decided to appoint Dr. Luís Montenegro as Prime Minister,” reads a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic at around 00:20.
The text was released after the second audience of the day between the head of state and the leader of the PSD at the Palace of Belém, who this time was received alone by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for around twenty minutes, and even before the official results of the tabulation of emigration constituencies had been published.
Luís Montenegro had been received by the head of state for the first time on Wednesday at 5pm, in his capacity as leader of the AD, in a meeting that lasted around an hour and forty minutes and in which he was accompanied by the president of the CDS-PP, Nuno Melo, and the Social Democrat leaders Hugo Soares and Paulo Rangel.
