At the official start of the succession process for António Costa as Secretary General of the PS, he himself opened his mouth and said that he will not support any of the leadership candidates (there are currently three), despite both of whom he worked together praised. most direct (Pedro Nuno Santos and José Luís Carneiro). There is also a third candidate, Daniel Adrião.
In the opening speech of last Saturday’s National Commission meeting (which took place behind closed doors), António Costa guaranteed that he will remain a member of the party. looked at the governance figures and raised issues of fairnesswhereby the party is advised not to follow this line.
Then it was Carlos César’s turn to set the tone for the battles that followed. In a message with a critical tone and not as soothing as that of António Costa, the socialist leader criticized the actions of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who accused him of accepting the current situation “without blinking”. On the other hand, he praised António Costa, especially for the work he did to gain “external respect” during the eight years he ruled. Warning that the party was not always able to detect signals of dissatisfaction. That’s why he left a call for unity. Only then will the party be able to win the parliamentary elections in March, César believes.
The meeting of the National Commission (the highest body between congresses) aimed to approve the proposals for bringing forward the congress (it was scheduled for March, now it will take place on January 6 and 7) and the dates of the immediate meetings (which will take place on December 15 and 16), as well as other internal electoral acts. A total of 25 members spoke during the meeting.
One of the speakers was Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, a historical socialist, who thus returned to party action, as he himself assumed. “I come to this National Commission to express, personally, to our Secretary General, António Costa, my admiration and recognition for having given back hope to the country and the PS for almost ten years. It is not a small thing, it is really a big thing,” he thought. Assessing several points of António Costa’s administration, the former Secretary General of the PS (he was also a minister and President of the Assembly of the Republic) admitted that “there were things” he disagreed with or hesitated to agree with.
In his intervention Ferro Rodrigues also criticized the actions of the justice system. “This crisis, the most serious in our democracy, was caused by an irresponsible statement, or by the realization of the consequences this would haveor otherwise illiterate under the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, referring to the Supreme Court,” he said, further stating that “urgently” it is demanded that “the same people who led to the dismissal” António Costa “relieved him of his responsibilities “. “When an anonymous ‘justice’ questions political democracy, I feel a duty to pressure it to be clear, transparent and identifiable,” he concluded.
“Number Two” supports Pedro Nuno Santos
This Saturday’s meeting saw the support of João Torres, Deputy General Secretary, for Pedro Nuno Santos, who considers this the right name to ‘mobilize and energize’ the electorate. The former minister was not present. When he resigned from the government in January this year, he also decided to leave the Socialist leadership, leaving him out of any political decision.
“Pedro Nuno Santos, who was part of the governments led by António Costa for many years, is perhaps the first co-responsible for the fact that the PS has secured its strategic autonomy in the four years of the Geringonça government,” said João Torres . Another supporter of Pedro Nuno Santos, Alexandra Leitão, also left a warning for the candidate, telling him not to treat the campaign as a “walk in the park.” “Obviously we have to respect all our opponents a lot. And from December 17, we will all be in the same boat” he further stated.
José Luís Carneiro, another leadership candidate and current Minister of the Interior, once again spoke to the center and not so much to the left. The DN knows that with the intervention he made, Carneiro has assumed the guarantee of political stability and that he will be the one who will represent the center’s capacity for dialogue. “For those who fear this capacity for dialogue: remember that I started my political life by winning a chamber from the PSD [em Baião]” said the person in charge.
Daniel Adrião, head of the party’s so-called ‘minority sensitivity’, presented himself as the face of the ‘discontinuity’. A new political cycle requires new protagonists. My candidacy is not one of continuity, but rather of discontinuity. It is a candidacy with very clear, very pronounced ideas, with a new governance model for the PS and with a new reformist and transformative project for the country,” he said at the entrance to the National Commission.
Source: DN
