“If I offended anyone, it was not intentionally”: Antonio Costa says goodbye to parliament

The Prime Minister said goodbye to Parliament this Monday with a “big hug” and wished everyone who, like himself, will no longer stand in the next election, to be at least as happy in the future as they were in the roles they occupied. The Prime Minister took the opportunity to add that if he had offended anyone over the years, “he did not do it intentionally,” and if someone had offended him, he had already forgotten about it.

“What I want to wish to all deputies who will be re-elected in the next elections is the continuation of good mandates. To those who, like me, will not be re-elected, I want to wish that this is the first day of the rest of your lives and that we are as happy in our lives that we will have to continue as at least we were in that life that we have led over these years,” he said.

At the end of the preparatory debate in the European Council, during his last speech in the Assembly of the Republic before dissolution on January 15, António Costa asked for a few seconds for a few parting words.

The Prime Minister began by emphasizing the “great honor” of being elected as an MP six times and serving as a minister in governments accountable to Parliament three times, as well as heading three chief executives since 2015.

“I want to greet each and every member of this parliament. Naturally, parliament consists of contradictions, it consists of contradictions, sometimes more lively, sometimes less alive,” he said.

António Costa said goodbye to parliament with “a big hug” and “best wishes for continued good work.”

After a long ovation from the PS deputies, joined by some seated PSD deputies, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, took the floor.

“I want to thank the Prime Minister for all the control available to the Assembly of the Republic and for all the solidarity that can exist between two sovereign bodies. It is before the Assembly that the government reacts politically. The minister understood well. I must thank him for this,” he said.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, signed on Thursday the decree dismissing the government (which took effect on Friday), a month after the prime minister submitted his resignation to the head of state, on November 7, who accepted it immediately. and consequently decided to dissolve parliament and call early legislative elections for 10 March.

The Head of State has already announced that the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic will be announced on January 15, the last possible day of the legislative elections to be held on March 10, taking into account that, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the electoral process, this must by law take place between 55 and 60 days before the date chosen for the election.

Prime Minister António Costa submitted his resignation to the President of the Republic on November 7 in connection with a judicial investigation into the installation of a data center in Sines and lithium and hydrogen plants, prompting prosecutors to open an independent investigation in the Supreme Court in which he is being prosecuted.