The Prime Minister, António Costa, found on Wednesday that the President of the Republic is “the voice of the Portuguese” and left a “very important message” on October 5, while the government’s role is to act and resolve .
Responding to questions from journalists, in Praça do Município, in Lisbon, after the intervention of the Head of State, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during the ceremony commemorating the 112th anniversary of the implantation of the Republic, the Prime Minister emphasized the different roles of political leaders.
“The president of the republic is of course the president of all Portuguese, he is the voice of the Portuguese who have no voice and therefore of course he must express the feeling of the country, the feeling of the nation,” he said. said.
“We don’t speak. We act, we do, we solve it. This is the fundamental function of the government,” António Costa countered.
According to the prime minister, the government is “very attentive to what is happening in the country, to what is happening in the world”, and involved in “taking into account the economic situation, taking a series of policy measures that strengthen confidence”.
“Listening to the voice of the Portuguese, it is up to us what is not up to anyone else, which is to find solutions to solve the problems,” he added.
As for the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, who also spoke at this October 5 ceremony and asked for “guts to overcome stagnation”, the prime minister limited his room for intervention by saying that “of course he speaks with Lisboners”.
In his speech, the President of the Republic went back to Portugal a hundred years ago, also suffering the consequences of a pandemic and war, to warn of the danger of dictatorships and to demand progress in democracy, where he believes was that “there is a way for everyone”. .
António Costa believed that “Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s speech was very important for the country”, who in his opinion “announced how, despite the times of enormous uncertainty, Portugal is now “in a situation beyond compare is with a hundred years”.
The Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PS considered that “Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s speech was very important for the country”, who in his opinion “announce how, despite the times of enormous uncertainty, Portugal is now “in a situation that cannot be compared with a hundred years ago”.
In the same vein, the deputy secretary-general of the PS, João Torres, defended that the state of Portuguese democracy is “very mature” and that “this was a dimension to which the President of the Republic has pointed very well, in contrast to fact , with a reality that existed a hundred years ago”.
“We live well with the exercise of democratic powers, in their different expressions, in their different manifestations, either by those who exercise governmental responsibilities, or also by those who exercise responsibilities in the opposition,” he added.
João Torres agreed that democracy “also has an increasingly strong economic and social dimension” and assured that socialists “will continue to work for it every day”, “based on the values of freedom, equality and social justice”.
“We believe in the PS that the Republic is the government system that protects the best, safeguards the best and promotes the best a fundamental value for the PS, which is the value of equality,” he emphasized.
Source: DN
