The general secretary of the PS convened for Saturday morning a meeting of the Political Commission to vote on the proposal that will be elaborated by the direction of the socialists on the position of this party in matters of presidential elections.
The meeting of the PS Political Commission convened by António Costa precedes the meeting on the same theme as the National Commission, the top organ of this party between congress, which is scheduled to start at 2:30 pm, at the Capitólio cinema, located in Parque Mayer, in Lisbon.
Today, at the end of the afternoon, also on the subject of presidential candidates, António Costa meets with the presidents of the federations and, soon after, will have the National Secretariat, the executive organ of this party.
With this succession of meetings, the leader of the socialists and prime minister wants the official position of the PS in relation to the elections for the President of the Republic to come from the National Secretariat, the executive management organ, and then be formally approved by the remaining national bodies of the party: The Political Commission and the National Commission.
Regarding the presidential issue, most of the socialist leaders seem to be inclined to approve the principle of freedom of vote as a guideline, despite the presidential candidacy of former socialist MEP Ana Gomes.
Likewise, it is also expected that any possible formal support from the PS to the eventual presidential re-election of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is out of the question, although socialist figures such as the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Ferro Rodrigues, the former Minister of Culture João Soares and the socialist leader Álvaro Beleza has already conveyed his intention to vote for the current head of state.
In addition to these socialists, the Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, or the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, also praised the way Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has exercised his mandate as President of the Republic.
Already the Prime Minister, António Costa, transmitted today, in an interview to Antena 1, a sign of political departure from Ana Gomes’ presidential candidacy, saying that until now he has not yet spoken with the former socialist MEP about his entry in the race to Belém.
Last April, during a visit he made with the President of the Republic to the Autoeuropa plant in Palmela, António Costa anticipated that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be re-elected head of state if he runs again.
Later, in an interview with the newspaper Expresso, at the end of August, António Costa even said that if Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa did not re-run, there would be “a serious problem in the whole country, which takes it for granted and feels comfortable with the President ”.
However, he also warned that he will not have a direct involvement in the election campaign of the next presidential candidates: “As I am also Prime Minister, I must be the person who least interferes in this debate, because I will have to have an institutional relationship with the next President. I will not interfere much in this election campaign ”, he justified.
António Costa has argued that the presidential issue is not a priority for the PS, which must be focused on the country’s governance, and sought to extend its “modesty” and “reserve duty” attitude about the race to Belém to members of its Government, but without having achieved a complete success so far.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, connoted with the left wing of the PS, contradicted a favorable position previously expressed by Augusto Santos Silva in the face of a re-candidacy by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and signaled his support to Ana Gomes, arguing that “it is not must confuse extremism with courage ”.
Pedro Nuno Santos, appointed as a potential candidate for the succession of António Costa in the leadership of the PS, later said that he liked “people, men or women, with courage and that they never make mistakes with those who have to be, the people, the workers, families, and always have the courage to face those who, above, were more or less doing what they always wanted from our country ”.
Still in response to socialists who criticize an alleged “radicalism” by Ana Gomes, Pedro Nuno Santos left the following message: “People are not good for the PS to do some things from time to time, be MEPs, be candidates for the city council or members of the National Secretariat and then, from one moment to the next, start to be vilified because it doesn’t help them ”.
In these meetings of the Political and National commissions, on Saturday, it is almost certain that the proposal of the minority current, by Daniel Adrião, will be disapproved, in the sense that the PS hold an internal referendum, by electronic vote, on its position vis-à-vis the presidential elections in January. 2021.
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