“I don’t decide what to do. I have to control what the decision maker does. To complement each other [Presidente e primeiro-ministro] we need to have different perspectives. If we thought exactly the same, it wouldn’t be worth having a president and a prime minister. There was a president who was prime minister at the same time. It is not the Portuguese system,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told journalists in the town of Sameiro, in the municipality of Manteigas.
The head of state is visiting today the area affected by the great fire in Serra da Estrela, which burned a total of 24,000 hectares in August.
Asked by journalists about the Christmas message he addressed to the Portuguese, Marcelo explained that António Costa, “as befits a Prime Minister, spoke of hope and spoke of what could be a year where we manage to go beyond what we have been this year”.
Further into the time of the pandemic, further using more structural funds, further resisting the economy through a difficult period still with war, even further in the sense of waiting for prices to fall and social aid trying to minimize while they very high and in what it means to reduce the purchasing power of the Portuguese,” he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa understands that “it was a word of optimism and hope” starting from realism, “because the Prime Minister starts from the situation we live in”.
However, he added that it is necessary to see that “no two people are the same” and António Costa’s position “is that of whom it has executive management and who must guarantee this management. , but it is permanently alert to the demands of the population.”.
The head of state also stressed that “there are different style notes”.
“There are more optimistic styles and there are styles that, while still optimistic, are concerned with their own position and way of being, with reality and what concerns the Portuguese at the moment and in their own way”.
The Prime Minister, in the Christmas message broadcast on Sunday evening, considered that there are reasons for the Portuguese to be confident despite the scenario of international uncertainty, emphasizing that the deficit and debt reduction trajectory “saves Portugal from turbulence from Past”. “.
For the executive leader, the three words that best express what is wanted at this time of year are peace, solidarity and trust: “Trust is what our country guarantees us today, when there is so much uncertainty around us in the international stage. Confidence in the future, for what we do in the present.”
During this visit to the areas affected by the summer fires, the President of the Republic will be accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, and in addition to the visit to Covilhã, visits are also planned to the municipalities of Manteigas, Seia, Gouveia, Celorico da Beira and Guard.
Source: DN
