The former PSD president arrived while Montenegro was making statements to the media and at the end of the session, with Passos Coelho still in the room, the Social Democratic leader left through a side corridor, without greeting each other.

“I’m not going to make statements because I normally don’t do them, as you know,” Passos Coelho said at the exit.

Former PSD president Manuela Ferreira Leite, Cardinal Américo Aguiar and social democrats such as José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, José Luís Arnaut or Maria Luís Albuquerque were also present at the presentation session of the book ‘Elements of constitutional politics – Political Science, Theory of the Constitution and Constitutional Law”, published by Almedina, in an auditorium at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in Lisbon.

The presentation of this book by Paulo Rangel was scheduled for November 8, but was postponed due to the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa, which was presented the day before, which ultimately coincided with a pre-campaign moment for the expected parliamentary elections that have taken place. announced for March 30.

At the beginning of his speech, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa opined that “in accepting the invitation in times older than the nearest past, it would have been absurd and less considerate not to come here”.

Earlier, Paulo Rangel thanked the President of the Republic for accepting the invitation, which he said was “a bit provocative”, to speak at this session, “and for the enthusiasm he showed, and for the circumstance that he had agreed to postpone the elections. and come back to find a new date for us to hold the presentation”.

“It was not easy to accept it, but it was accepted immediately,” said the MEP and First Vice-President of the PSD, adding: “It is something I will never be able to thank. To be honest, it was an acceptance that surprised me and that’s why I naturally wanted to record it.”

In addition to many deputies, including parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, and members of the current PSD leadership, such as Hugo Soares, António Leitão Amaro or Margarida Balseiro Lopes, the vice-president of the CDS-PP Paulo Núncio, the former Christian Democrat deputies Nuno Magalhães and Diogo Feio and former executive governors of the PS Campos e Cunha and José Conde Rodrigues.