“Let everyone mobilize everyone, appealing to their intelligence. Wasting votes on the left is to strengthen the agenda of those who do not appreciate the 25th of April. Concentrating votes on the PS is creating the conditions for the next government to be one that meets the prestige, needs, and strength of Portugal,” urged Augusto Santos Silva this afternoon during the PS campaign in Setúbal.
The former president of parliament expressed that he is not afraid of anyone’s vote, but rather of the people “who do not vote,” calling for mobilization, as he believes “the more people vote, the stronger the PS will be.” This, in his view, could lead to a competent government that “knows how to be attentive to Europe and the world.”
Santos Silva emphasized the need for Portugal to have a “government rather than an electoral commission.”
“Eleven months of electoral commission, eleven months of squandering the money that the prudent financial management of the PS had allowed to accumulate, not for reforms or safeguarding the future, but rather to try to silence the most vocal groups or interests,” he criticized, stating that “this is not governing” and that it is necessary to help Luís Montenegro “become an ex-prime minister.”
Santos Silva expressed his astonishment at hearing Luís Montenegro claim that the only useful vote for stability is for the AD, countering that Sunday’s elections were called because the government “forced its own fall” due to “a personal problem.”
“Of course, various parties could claim stability for themselves, but there is one coalition that cannot, and that is the AD,” he asserted.
The former president of parliament also expressed “sadness” because the country did not need these elections at this time, nor should “the prime minister’s problem paralyze the life” of Portugal during a critical period for the world.
“I would like the government to be guiding us, speaking on our behalf, representing us in Brussels or New York (…), condemning the massacre in Gaza,” he emphasized.
Recalling his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs for six and a half years, Santos Silva mentioned that the Portuguese prime minister was often called for consultations with his colleagues because Portugal’s voice mattered.
“Portuguese foreign policy existed, and one did not go play golf on days when one should have been in Brussels,” he remarked.
