The new PS general secretary, Pedro Nuno Santos, defended in his victory speech that “a great result from the PS is the best way to guarantee stability” after the March 10 parliamentary elections, refusing to answer journalists’ questions about alliances. -elections. Yet the Socialist who ruled it between 2015 and 2019, as Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said he rarely used the term because “there was nothing like a device, because it was stable and worked well”.
Despite acknowledging that “there is still a lot of work to do in Portugal,” and even admitting that “all is not going well” at the National Health Service, the new Socialist leader, repeating the campaign motto “all of Portugal” dozens of times Speaking at the national headquarters in Largo do Rato, he paid tribute to his predecessor António Costa and the achievements of his eight years of administration.
Between the “unprecedented increase” in the national minimum wage, the extraordinary increases in the lowest pensions and the correct government accounts, Pedro Nuno Santos said of António Costa that “we always count on him and he comes with us”, which I suspect makes him the election campaign is counting on the Prime Minister and will be prepared to support his ambitions at European Union level. “We are extremely proud of the work he has done and the achievements of his administration,” he assured, admitting that he is capable of governing with the last state budget of the last of his three executives.
Based on what little he said about his priorities as a possible future Prime Minister of Portugal, he said that the PS’s solution for the National Health Service “does not consist in giving up or privatizing it, or, as some say, supplementing it with the private “. Nevertheless, he emphasized that he respects the role of private healthcare, just as he praised the entrepreneurs who “create value and jobs” with their companies, in the aftermath of his opening speech for the campaign, also in Largo do Rato , where he introduced himself as “the grandson of a shoemaker and the son of a businessman”, distancing himself from his image as a left-wing radical.
In this regard, Santos said during the journalists’ question period that “the country is not divided between radicals and moderates, but between those who have convictions and those who do not.” And he left a comment to Social Democratic leader Luís Montenegro on the choice of the location of Lisbon’s new airport, saying that “we do not invent working groups on top of committees”.
“We don’t want a country to drag its feet. We want a country that makes things possible,” said the new socialist leader, who promised “ambition and non-conformity” and made promises to both the youngest – “being young in Portugal has to be a pleasure and I think it nice,” he said – and also to the elderly, to whom he assured that “the PS improves its income wherever possible.”
Pedro Nuno Santos obtained 24,080 votes, equivalent to 62%, and elected at least 909 deputies to the PS Congress, which takes place between January 5 and 7, while José Luís Carneiro had with him 14,868 militants, with 36% and 407 deputies, and Daniel Adrião received no more than 382 votes, with 1% and five deputies. These results were released by the president of the Congress Organizing Committee, Pedro do Carmo, warning that several dozen polling stations remained to be counted and 83 deputies had to be elected.
As for the rivals in the dispute over the succession of António Costa, the man who became the ninth general secretary of the PS left a compliment to the “comrades who were indirectly internal opponents”, noting the contribution of José Luís Carneiro and Daniel Adrião to the internal debate. and guarantee that both “work towards the unity that has always characterized the PS”. However, he postponed the kind of cooperation that the current Minister of the Interior and the face of the internal opposition to Costa could bring to his leadership.
At the beginning of his speech, Pedro Nuno Santos thanked his campaign manager, Francisco César, and the coordinator of his strategy motion, Alexandra Leitão, emphasizing that it was up to him to “outline ideas for so many problems that still exist”.
Source: DN
