The new Secretary General of the PS declared this Sunday that he wanted to start “a new phase, a new cycle” with a project “of continuity, but above all of change”, and was of the opinion that he is not “the leader that I liked it right away.”
Pedro Nuno Santos addressed journalists at the PS national headquarters in Lisbon, where he had a meeting today lasting about an hour and a half with his predecessor in the leadership of the Socialists and still Prime Minister António Costa.
When asked about the PSD’s criticism of his first speech as PS general secretary on Saturday evening, Pedro Nuno Santos replied: “I am not the candidate that the right would like me to be. I am not the leader of the PSD. the PS that the right would like to have.”
“We will put up a great fight against this right wing and the PSD to win the elections on March 10. “I’m not going to comment on my speech because, as you can imagine, I didn’t expect the speech I gave or what I will say, whether one day or at some point I will be praised by the PSD,” he added to it.
According to Pedro Nuno Santos, “one would suspect that, if it were actually praised by the PSD leader or any PSD leader, it would indeed be worrying”.
The newly elected Secretary General of the PS once again expressed his pride in the achievements of the governments led by António Costa over the past eight years, stating that he wanted to “continue and implement many of the projects initiated by the current government didn’t want to complete alone”. , but gave “a start to a new phase, a new cycle”, and reiterated the idea that he wants to lead a project “with a new impetus, with a new energy”.
“A project that is about continuity, but above all about change, to solve problems that still exist in our country,” he defined later.
As he did during the internal PS campaign, Pedro Nuno Santos emphasized the message that not everything is fine, that there are problems that need to be solved. He once again rejected the division between radicals and moderates, stating: “Radical are indeed some of the problems that still plague us in our country and that need an answer, yes.”
Pedro Nuno Santos promised to present a PS election manifesto “with answers to several problems that the country still faces so that we can move Portugal forward.”
“We still want to improve salaries, improve pensions, improve public services and succeed in diversifying our economy, while at the same time we will continue to strive for healthy public finances,” he said.
The new PS Secretary General was elected with 62% of the vote in direct elections between Friday and Saturday, pitting him against José Luís Carneiro, who finished in second place with 36%, and Daniel Adrião, who received 1 vote released. % of votes.
When asked whether he plans to make major changes in the internal organization of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos said that “it is normal that in the current context there are also changes in the party and in the organization of the party” .
‘I mean, there is continuity here, obviously there is no rupture, but there is also a change, and there has to be innovation in the way we organize ourselves, how we intervene politically. This will obviously happen, this is inevitable whenever there is a change of leadership in a party,” he added.
Source: DN
