The president of the CDS-PP, Nuno Melo, admitted on Monday that the party could join a right-wing pre-electoral coalition in the next parliamentary elections if this would be beneficial for the country, but stated that he would not go “begging ‘. “.
Speaking to journalists at the party’s national headquarters, the centrist leader believed that “the first task of a full-fledged party is to be willing to vote for itself and not live in fear about what it can do to others.”
“You will never see me begging or saying that the CDS works out of necessity. I have a lot of confidence in the CDS as a party, in the people who represent the CDS, wherever it may be, and therefore what we can do with others will never be a favor, or because we fear it, “It will only happen if at a certain point it is better for Portugal and in the interest of the CDS, in the certainty that the CDS will not make any drama in voting alone if necessary,” marked.
The centrist leader indicated that there have not yet been “any contacts” with the PSD, but “whatever has to be done will be done,” and reiterated that “there would be an advantage in a coalition before the elections,” because it would offer more options. votes that need to be taken, and also “for strategic reasons”, because the CDS-PP and the PSD have already fought together in national, regional and local elections.
However, Nuno Melo indicated that the CDS-PP “has been prepared to go to the vote alone for 49 years” and “does not see any drama in this,” saying that his “goal is to prepare the party for itself ”. , with great confidence”, go to the ballot and elect alternates.
Regarding the electoral objective for the parliamentary elections on March 10, the MEP said that it means being represented again in the Assembly of the Republic, “with as many mandates as the mandates that the Portuguese people want to give” to the CDS.
“If you don’t make it, that’s life, but we’ll make it,” he said.
The CDS-PP today brought together several party personalities in an initiative called a “staff meeting,” including the current president and former leaders Paulo Portas and Manuel Monteiro, the former foreign minister and current vice president of the CDS. , the Secretary General, Pedro Morais Soares, the State Councilor António Lobo Xavier, or the former deputies Cecília Meireles, Nuno Magalhães, Isabel Galriça Neto, Ana Rita Bessa, Hélder Amaral and João Almeida.
This meeting, which took place at the CDS-PP national headquarters in Lisbon, also included Adolfo Mesquita Nunes and Francisco Mendes da Silva, who left the party in 2021.
“What we have here today is a meeting of more than forty people, many of whom are very well known, who are helping the CDS to think about what this cycle should be about, about the themes that are not only on the agenda, but which should also be discussed. do with the CDS, the strategy, but above all in this sign of unity of all those who, because they have a greater good in the CDS, do not stay at home and strive for the CDS to return to parliament,” said Nuno Melo.
The CDS-PP president said he was “grateful for the quantity, quality and relevance of the people” who came to Largo do Caldas because they “add a lot”, have “a lot of politics, strategic thinking and proven experience”. , and emphasized that this initiative “is not a theater exercise.”
“What the CDS is showing here today, many other parties do not have to show,” he said, emphasizing that “the CDS shows itself as a party with a lot of quality in people, with experience, predictable, a party that is a high level. “Moderate right, with social interests, with values, and all this is a legacy that is more than 48 years old, a party that was not born yesterday, a party that is still greatly missed in Portugal.”
The initiative will be repeated again next Wednesday, with the presence of former leader Assunção Cristas, former minister Luís Pedro Mota Soares and former parliamentary leader Telmo Correia, among others.
Nuno Melo indicated that former leaders Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos and José Ribeiro e Castro were invited but did not attend for “personal reasons”.
Source: DN
