“Knowing Luís Marques Mendes and recognizing in him the personal qualities required for the presidential role, my support for him is unequivocally strengthened,” stated Nuno Morais Sarmento in a video accessible to the Lusa agency.
In the message, Nuno Morais Sarmento, the former leader of the PSD, who has the party’s backing, was described as “perhaps the only candidate known to the country and the only candidate whom, due to his more than 30 years of public service, Portuguese people can trust.”
“Trust is what these elections are about,” he underscored.
The president of FLAD and former minister for the Presidency under Durão Barroso highlighted that in presidential elections, he seeks to consider not only the candidate supported by his party but also all candidates from his political sphere, hence acknowledging both António José Seguro and Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo.
Nonetheless, in António José Seguro, backed by the PS, he found “no strong distinguishing reason.”
Regarding Gouveia e Melo, he mentioned that the military figure initially presented himself as “differing from many expectations, someone with an open vision of the world and a more civilian than military view of democracy, all positive reasons,” but later “began a zigzag path where, unfortunately, seeking certain supports seems more important than asserting his ideas.”
The former minister also noted that “both, like all other candidates, have coincided in asserting that they are, more or less, outside the system and have nothing to do with it.”
“The more this was affirmed by all alternative candidates, the more certain I became of Luís Marques Mendes’ stance. Because his position is, fundamentally, to be acknowledged within a system that guaranteed us 50 years of democracy and the development obtained. It appears this system has only one defender, Luís Marques Mendes,” he argued.
Nuno Morais Sarmento served as a minister in several social-democratic governments and was vice-president of the PSD during the leaderships of Durão Barroso and Rui Rio, the latter now serving as the national representative for Gouveia e Melo’s candidacy.
