PS deputy secretary general says Cavaco Silva ‘lost sense of state’ and spoke aggressively

PS Deputy Secretary General Joao Torres said this Sunday that statements made by former President of the Republic Cavaco Silva on Saturday show that he has “lost the feeling of the state” and that he is “dissatisfied” with his “great unpopularity” in the country.

“Aggression and verbal violence, to which the country yesterday [sábado] in the presence of the former Prime Minister and the former President of the Republic show that Professor Cavaco Silva has lost the necessary sense of the state,” João Torres told reporters on the sidelines of the PS/Braga 50th Anniversary Gala at the Circus Theatre.

And he continued: “This aggressiveness and verbal violence that Professor Cavaco Silva used also shows that he is in some way unhappy with the fact that he is very unpopular in our country.”

For the Socialist leader, the Social Democrat’s presidential mandate “is a mandate that no Portuguese remembers particularly well, and it seems that Professor Cavaco Silva has not dealt with his past well.”

On Saturday, Anibal Cavaco Silva accused the government of being a specialist in “lies and propaganda” in a highly critical speech by the executive at the 3rd National Assembly of Social Democrat Mayors (ASD) in Lisbon.

“Political debate needs to be saved because that’s important in a democracy. Judging from what we see, hear and read, there are two areas in which the socialist government specializes: lies, propaganda and subterfuge,” he accused. .

With Prime Minister António Costa “lost his powers”, the former head of state said that sometimes heads of government “decide to resign” because of a “strike of conscience”.

“In principle, the current legislature ends in 2026. But sometimes prime ministers, as a result of thinking about the situation in the country or pangs of conscience, decide to resign, and there are early elections – that’s all. happened in March 2011,” he said.

Cavaco Silva defended that “the SDP is unequivocally the only true and credible alternative to socialist power” and believed that SDP leader Luis Montenegro was “as well prepared or better prepared” than he was when he was head of government.

The former President of the Republic (between 2006 and 2016) believed that the SDP “should not follow votes of no confidence presented by other parties more interested in being in the news in the media” – citing Chega and Iniciativa Liberal. which had already presented a vote of no confidence in the socialist executive in the current legislative session, both were rejected in parliament.

On November 26, 2015, António Costa was sworn in as Prime Minister by the then President of the Republic, Anibal Cavaco Silva, beginning to lead the Constitutional Government of the 21st century.

Just 27 days after the previous inauguration – PSD/CDS-PP Executive Director led by Pedro Passos Coelho, who was ousted in Parliament on November 10, 2015 – a member of the PS minority was sworn in.

This government had an unprecedented decision of parliamentary support from the PCP, BE and PEV between November 2015 and October 2021, referred to as a “trick”.