Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa believes this Sunday that the new leader of the SDP, Luis Montenegro, has begun “closer contact with the President of the Republic” and paved the way for the “special cooperation” that he welcomed.
“From what I have seen, I register a new fact regarding the President of the Portuguese Republic, namely: where there was institutional cooperation in the recent past, there is special cooperation. Portuguese Republic. I am registering and I am happy with it,” the head of state told reporters in Sao Paulo.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added that he didn’t say that “because he’s an PSD” and that he would take the same position “with any party” because he understands that “the country needs cooperation, not just institutional cooperation” .
When asked what prompted him to talk about “special cooperation” with Luis Montenegro, who replaced Rui Rio as the leader of the SDP, the President of the Republic replied: “Because he used this expression. It wasn’t me, he was using an expression.”
“In politics, in these very specific moments, and also in specific moments, the use of words is not indifferent,” he said.
In the closing speech of the PSD Congress this Sunday in Porto, Luis Montenegro addressed “the representatives of His Excellency the President of the Republic”, through whom he sent “a message of the full readiness of the new leadership of the PSD to continue the feeling of loyalty and institutional cooperation, the relationship of closeness and cooperation that democracy and the Portuguese demand and deserve.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, it is good that there is “cooperation more focused on the fundamental aspects of the country’s strategy”, such as the solution of the airport for the Lisbon region and decentralization, “dossiers that suggest cooperation between the main parties”.
“There is one thing that I have always advocated, and you know, that is a strong opposition,” he said, defending that the opposition and the government mutually reinforce each other: “It is very good, the country needs it for the moment, and it also needs in cooperation”.
The head of state spoke at the official residence of the Portuguese Consul General in Sao Paulo, next to him were Minister of Culture Pedro Adao e Silva and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Francisco André.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
