The President of the Republic will attend in person tomorrow at a conference dinner taking place as part of the PSD Summer University. It is not the first time that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has taken part in this social-democratic event since he was elected head of state, but it is a first because it is a face-to-face participation, in Castelo de Vide, in the Alentejo , where he will speak exclusively about Ukraine.
Until 2014, Marcelo participated in several editions of the PSD Summer University, where he attended. Since being elected President of the Republic, he participated in this meeting with young people in 2018 and last year, but with remote participation. In this edition, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the PSD Summer University, Marcelo will be there. “Unlike what happened before, in which he responded by video to all political questions put to him in writing in 2018, last year in direct dialogue, the president will respond personally, but the only subject he will address is Ukraine” , says a statement published yesterday on the official page of the Presidency of the Republic.
The Summer University has been organized since 2003 through a joint effort of the PSD, the JSD, the Francisco Sá Carneiro Institute and the Social Democratic Delegation of the European People’s Party. 100 young people will participate in the 19th edition, chosen from 350 candidates. According to the university’s director, Carlos Coelho, the participants were chosen taking into account an “age balance, between 18 and 30 years old, gender, between men and women, and geographical location, to cover the whole country”.
Also in writing, as happened with the President of the Republic in 2018, the “students” will respond throughout the week, personalities such as the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, the parliamentary leader of the PSD, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, or the Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon who presided over World Youth Day 2023, Américo Aguiar.
PSD secretary-general Hugo Soares, in his intervention yesterday at the start of work at the Summer University, believed that the government is “without king or roque”, and criticized the executive’s policies. “Where is Doctor António Costa, where is the Prime Minister of Portugal, faced with a concrete question about people’s lives, studied and thought that a tax cut is possible,” he wondered, recalling the announced tax reform by PSD leader Luís Montenegro at the party’s political rally at the Pontal Festival in mid-August. vmc with lusa
Source: DN
