During a press briefing following his visit to the Decorhotel fair in Lisbon, Marques Mendes addressed comments by Cotrim Figueiredo, the candidate supported by IL, in an interview with Expresso. Figueiredo claimed he was pressured by other candidates, including Mendes (though not naming him), to not pursue the Presidency.
“I have never exerted any pressure on João Cotrim Figueiredo in my life. I haven’t spoken to him in over two years, and no one from my candidacy has ever been authorized to converse with him on this matter. The news is thus completely false, fanciful, and an abuse, an indignity,” Mendes stated.
Supported by PSD and CDS-PP, Mendes then offered his political interpretation of the former liberal leader’s statements.
“This happens because I am rising in the polls. I anticipated that as I gained in the polls, falsehoods and personal attacks would begin. I just didn’t expect them to come from the Iniciativa Liberal and its candidate,” he commented.
Mendes highlighted that the IL candidate professes a desire to change and improve political practices.
“Yet he is employing the worst tricks of old traditional politics. This is a genuine indignity and dishonesty,” Mendes remarked.
Asked about Cotrim’s comments in the same interview, questioning if there were any underlying interests behind the former PSD leader’s television remarks, Mendes responded with a single objective.
“My interest throughout my 12 years of commentary was to be useful to the public. To provide information, analyses, and comments that served the people. That’s why I typically had over a million viewers, and even today, people tell me they miss my commentary,” he asserted.
