Prime Minister António Costa confirmed this Saturday to the Lusa agency that he was invited by Socialist Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos to attend the final meeting of the congress on Sunday.
On Sunday, the last day of the three socialist congresses, António Costa attends the closing speech of Pedro Nuno Santos, which will be dedicated to presenting proposals for the country to hold legislative elections on March 10.
On Friday, the first day of the PS National Congress, which takes place at the Lisbon International Fair (FIL), the former Socialist General Secretary gave the keynote address.
In a speech in which he became emotional several times, he said his government had been overthrown, but not the PS, that it had the “energy” of the new leadership of Pedro Nuno Santos and that it was “ready to fight.”
“They may have overthrown me, but they have not defeated me. They may have overthrown our government, but they did not overthrow the PS. The PS here is strong and alive. The PS here is being reborn with new energy, with a new And we are ready to fight with Pedro Nuno Santos,” he said.
Antonio Costa, the outgoing prime minister, defended his eight-year legacy during which he led three governments.
“We won local elections in 2017 and 2021, European elections in 2019, legislative elections in 2019 and 2022. And these were the victories of the PS, not the victories of António Costa,” he noted, thereby seeking to remove the negative weight from the change of leadership in his political force after his resignation as prime minister on November 7.