“Everything counts: internal party election calendars [o congresso foi adiado para 15, 16 e 17 de março de 2024 e em 2026 deverá ser em data aproximada]the support that [António Costa] in Europe and even the support of the President who has already recognized that he cannot cause problems for Europe”.
The sentence is from a socialist leader underlining a Belém “approach to the prime minister’s possibility,”if so understood, at the right timestand for and assume the leadership of the European Council.
On May 10, Marcelo acknowledged the “great weight of government at European level” and it was even clear when he said that “the Prime Minister or the Secretary of State for European Affairs [Tiago Antunes] carry a lot of weight and that applies to the European Parliament and the European Council”.
Last week, on Friday, opened an “undercover support”in the words of another PS leader when he said that “what everyone, in the Portuguese and European scene, wants to follow is their own choice and everything I said now was not good for Portugal or for Europe”.
And reinforced the idea: “Since it is not my role to create problems for Portugal or Europe, I will not say anything (…) Wait for São João next year and ask me the question, because then it will be easier to give the answer”.
And what about Costa’s statement to the public? “Which? Explicit or implicit. This is what is quoted: “I guarantee stability. I have already explained to everyone that I will not accept any mission that endangers stability in Portugal. Would I ever jeopardize the stability that I have overcome with so much effort? ” – or that paragraph that says that “if you leave the leadership of the PS before the elections, you are determined to leave a situation of budgetary, economic and social stability in which the PS can win elections again, even if they are is led differently”?
“It makes all the difference,” emphasizes the socialist leader, who recalls Also Marcelo “has evolved in his understanding, there has been an evolution”.
In 2021 what was there “an unfounded speculation”.
On March 30, 2022, what was “speculation” turned into a warning. And it’s been 456 days. “I am sure Your Excellency knows that it will not be politically easy to have that face, that face that won the election indisputably and conspicuously, replaced by another halfway throughMarcelo warned at the government’s inauguration ceremony.
And then the realization of the threat, because either it would be, Costa would rule until 2026, or there would have to be early elections: “It is the price of great victories, inevitably personal and deliberately personalised”, and if it were “necessary”, he would not hesitate to “turn to riskier decisions or ungrateful”.
The next day, Marcelo refused the idea of a threat and used semantics: ” [Costa] it’s a hostage of the people, it’s not an ultimatum from the president, if you will, I didn’t mean to put it that way, it’s an ultimatum from the people, it’s not mine”.
Now it is precisely this “evolution”, to the point of “much weight at European level”, that supports the statement of another socialist leader who with the country in a “situation of fiscal, economic and social stability”, the “temptation” of early elections will be broken
“Next year we have [eleições] European, [eleições] Regional in the Azores. It is likely that the president will push the country towards more elections [legislativas antecipadas] when will we still have municipal elections in 2025?’ he asks.
After all, another PS leader sums up, there are only three scenarios; “Costa leaves in 2024 after Europeans leave a growing country and Marcelo sits with the hot potato in his hands deciding if he wants us to hold three elections in a year; Costa will leave in 2026 in time for a new European Council election [o mandato do presidente é de dois anos e meio, renovável por uma única vez]; or run for Prime Minister [em 2026] and leaves for Europe in the last year”.
Yesterday, Marcelo referred all responsibilities to the PS: “The absolute majority holds and exclusive the key to what happens, good and bad for its stability.”.
Source: DN
