Montenegro chooses Cavaco as an “important political reference” and maintains an “excellent working relationship” with Passos.

The PSD president chooses Cavaco as an “important political reference” and says he has an “excellent working relationship” with Passos Coelho, in a book that points to euthanasia as the “last straw” that alienated Montenegro from the former prime minister.

“I have a very long friendship with Dr. Marques Mendes (…). I have an excellent political working relationship with Pedro Passos Coelho. I closely followed and supported Durao Barroso and Pedro Santana Lopez himself; but my greatest political authority is even Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva,” says Luis Montenegro in a book written by Observador journalist Miguel Santos Carrapatoso.

In the work “In the Head of Montenegro”, the author believes that the transition of the PSD president from “the spearhead of passism to the symbol of neo-Kawakism” ended at the last extraordinary congress of the PSD, at which Cavaco Silva became an unexpected guest.

“It was the one that most awakened me to political life, it made me think more, but not reflect. I think his project was the only one that really had a beginning, middle and end,” says Montenegro.

The book, part of a trilogy published by Zigurate (the titles also feature PS general secretary Pedro Nuno Santos and Chega president André Ventura, launched in bookstores in early February), traces the process of distancing the current leader from former prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho .

“The parting was gradual, but the decisive moment came,” says the author, who reports that even Passos Coelho agreed to go to the first Festa do Pontal of the Montenegrin era after refusing to appear at the Enthronement Congress, in the summer of 2022.

They continued to “communicate regularly” and met at public and private events, but “everything began to change on December 8, 2022” when Passos wrote an article in the Observador about the decriminalization of euthanasia.

In this text, he puts pressure on the PSD leadership to have a “clear position on this issue” and regrets that the repeal of the decriminalization of euthanasia will not be considered a priority for the future right-wing majority.

Montenegro publicly admitted that it “totally disagreed” with its predecessor, a reaction that “disturbed” Passos Coelho, according to the book.

“The fact that Luis Montenegro took advantage of (legitimate) dissent to, in Passos’ opinion, turn the ordeal of life as PSD leader into a means of assassinating his political father deeply offended him. This was the last straw. Since then, the relationship between them will never be the same,” he says.

Another disagreement identified in the book between the two was Montenegro’s strategy of creating a cordon sanitaire around Čega, which Passos sees as a “concession to a leftist agenda” that would alienate the party’s “core voters and could lead the SDP.” to complete political irrelevance.”

As for this party, the book mentions that Montenegro never counted on Chegi’s alliances and “has the deep conviction that Andre Ventura will never dare to prevent the Social Democratic government from coming to power, even if he remains outside it.” because he will be fined in the next election.

In a chapter entitled “The Shadow,” journalist Miguel Carrapatoso reports that last fall, long before the early legislation was contemplated, Montenegro was suspicious of a “conscious plan” to destroy it led by Miguel Relvas, based on his CNN commentary. .

“The shadow of Passos Coelho was becoming unbearable. Montenegro has not yet decided to act,” the author says, recalling an October interview with the PSD leader to TVI/CNN, in which he announced that he would re-nominate himself for the post of party leader. SDP after the Europeans, regardless of the result.

The work says that Montenegro refused to join the government three times (with Santana Lopez and twice with Passos Coelho) for family reasons, and as for their relationship with the president of the republic, it says that “they have a much closer relationship.” a connection close to what can be imagined” after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa pointed out several times that there is no alternative to the government of António Costa.

At the most critical moment of cohabitation, the PSD leader even issued an internal order to “stop attacks” on Belém.

The book describes the political journey of Luis Montenegro, from the leadership of the JSD de Espinho to the present, including his parliamentary leadership and the failed attempt to overthrow Rui Rio in 2019, which Montenegro now considers a “big mistake” and naivety. .

Friendship and estrangement with Joaquim Pinto Moreira, whose partner in a law firm in Espinho was current IL leader Rui Rocha, controversy over his connection with Freemasonry (he claims he was never a formal member) or the opening of an investigation by the prosecutor’s office into tax benefits of his house – this is another stage of Montenegro’s path, illuminated in the work, which ends with the “greatest risk” for a social democratic politician.

“Perhaps no other decision was as risky as when he said he would only become prime minister if he won the election,” the author says, adding that in the more limited leadership of the SDP, “he deeply regrets his words “.

However, those closest to Luis Montenegro insist that “the leader of the Social Democrats will never go back on his word.”