Pedro Nuno Santos speaks today at the closing ceremony following the election of new national bodies at the PS Congress

Socialist General Secretary Pedro Nuno Santos will speak this Sunday at the closing of the 24th PS Congress, following the election of the party’s new national bodies, and will present some measures that signal the priorities of his program.

This Sunday morning, as an alternative, the nationalist political proposals of Pedro Nuno Santos and his two former domestic opponents, José Luis Carneiro and Daniel Adrián, will also be voted on.

The 24th PS National Congress, which began on Friday, takes place at the Lisbon International Fair (FIL). The closing speech is scheduled for 12:00 and will be attended by Prime Minister and former PS Secretary General António Costa at the invitation of Pedro Nuno Santos.

On Saturday, the PS general secretary expected that this Sunday he would present measures for “economic transformation and protection of the welfare state” that signal the priorities of the future electoral program with which he will present himself in the expected legislative elections on March 10. .

“A social state that still has problems to solve, for example in health, but we want to be reliable,” Pedro Nuno Santos told TVI.

Delegates will elect the National Commission, the highest body between the congresses, the National Commission for Jurisdiction and the National Commission for Economic and Financial Inspection, with two-year mandates.

The Secretary General of the PS and the two other candidates for the direct elections on December 15 and 16 agreed on a single list of the National Commission, headed by Francisco Assis, who has Alexandra Leitan in second place and José Luis Carneiro in third.

Next week, the new National Commission will elect the National Political Commission, in which it is already known that, among others, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, current ministers such as Mariana Vieira da Silva and Ana Catarina Mendes. will include Secretary of State António Mendonça Mendes and MEP Pedro Silva Pereira, as well as the National Secretariat, the executive body of the government, a team that will be proposed by the Secretary General.

In his first speech at the PS Congress on Saturday during lunch, Pedro Nuno Santos noted that he has matured under the government of António Costa, that he has really worked and that only those who do make mistakes, blaming, in contrast, the President in the PSD , Luis Montenegro, represents the emptiness of project and experience.

Expressing pride in the last eight years of PS rule, he acknowledged that “not everything has been done well” and “there are problems that need to be solved”, but said it was the Socialists who were in the “best position” to do so. .

The 24th PS Congress marks the transition of leadership from António Costa to Pedro Nuno Santos, who won with 61% of the votes in direct internal elections on 15 and 16 December, while José Luis Carneiro had 37% and Daniel Adriano 1% of the votes . .

Almost 70% of the approximately 1,400 Congress delegates elected the new Secretary General.

This electoral process in the PS began with the resignation of António Costa as Prime Minister, exactly two months ago, on November 7, after it became known that he was the subject of a judicial investigation launched by the Ministry of State in the Supreme Court from Operation Influential.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, immediately accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister and two days later announced to the country the dissolution of parliament and the appointment of early legislative elections for March 10.

On Friday, Prime Minister António Costa spoke at the opening of the Congress in his capacity as the former Secretary General of the PS, a position he held for nine years, from November 22, 2014.

In the final part of his speech, he received prolonged applause from members of Congress when he declared: “They may have overthrown our government, but they have not overthrown the PS. PS is strong and alive here. The PS is being revived here with new energy.” , with new management. And we are ready to fight with Pedro Nuno Santos.”