Following a meeting with the Permanent Council of the Council of Portuguese Communities in parliament, António José Seguro was questioned by journalists about former parliamentary president Augusto Santos Silva’s decision to abstain from the presidential race and about the Socialist Party’s timeline for supporting a candidate in these elections.
“I had the opportunity to say, when I announced and presented my candidacy, that this is a supra-party candidacy and will always be a supra-party candidacy. This is how I understand presidential candidacies. Political parties have their place when running in legislative elections,” he responded.
Expressing happiness with the support he has received from various sectors of society, the former PS secretary-general mentioned feeling “a growing wave.”
When pressed by journalists for his thoughts on Augusto Santos Silva’s decision, Seguro stated: “My view is that the Portuguese are facing hardships in many areas, including access to housing and in emergency services that are closed.”
“It is the problems of the Portuguese people that motivate us, the rest is political bickering, and I do not engage in political bickering,” he replied.
On Wednesday, Santos Silva announced that he will not run in next year’s presidential elections, having determined that the existing candidacies “do not fulfill the conditions for a broad social and political field to feel represented in the upcoming presidential elections.”
“Despite the numerous supports from very valuable and important people to me, which I received, and the encouragements for which I am deeply grateful, I reached the conclusion that my candidacy would not be sufficiently inclusive to be strong enough,” he noted.
The former parliamentary president suggested that “the best possible candidacy is that of an independent personality, originating from civil society, who can bring to the table” the issues that need to be discussed in the presidential campaign.
