The Democratic Alliance says it made it clear “from the first conversation” with television channels that CDS-PP president Nuno Melo will represent the coalition in debates with Livre and the CDU, “similar to what happened in 2015.”
This Wednesday, the PCP accused the PSD leader Luis Montenegro of wanting to “avoid the debate” with Paulo Raimundo scheduled for this Saturday at RTP-1, intending to send PSD President Nuno Melo to him on his behalf.
Speaking to Lusa, AD’s campaign manager Pedro Estevez said in a written statement that “The Democratic Alliance and its leader are not afraid to debate with anyone.”
“For this reason, they did not refuse any of the proposed debates. Neither on television nor on radio,” he adds, alluding to the refusal of PS General Secretary Pedro Nuno Santos from a second face-to-face meeting with Luis Montenegro on radio, in in addition to the televised debate already scheduled for the 19th.
However, the head of the AD campaign headquarters clarifies that “by agreement from the moment of the first conversation with the representative of the television channels, the AD coalition is represented in all debates by the chairman of the PSD, with the exception of those who oppose AD Livre and the CDU, where the representation of the Democratic Alliance coalition will be responsible President of the CDU, similar to what happened in 2015.”
This afternoon, the newspaper Diário de Notícias reported that the PSD intends to replace Luís Montenegro with Nuno Melo in the debate with the CDU and Livre (scheduled for February 17).
The Democratic Alliance coalition for the early parliamentary elections on March 10 consists of SDS, SDS-PP and PPM, while neither the Christian Democrats nor the monarchists received parliamentary representation in the current legislature.
In the 2015 elections, the Portugal-a-Front coalition consisted of the PSD and PSD-PP (both had parliamentary seats in the previous legislature), with Christian Democrats president Paulo Portas representing the Partnership Party in debates with the HDZ (which responded by sending Eloisa Apolonia from PEV, not the PCP Secretary General Jerónimo de Sousa) and BE, which was made coordinator by Katarina Martins.
Just Wednesday morning, the PSD president announced his “full readiness” for further debate with the PS leader, who refused a second personal meeting on the radio, emphasizing that the choice “at the helm” in these legislative elections is the election of the prime minister.
Montenegro responded that “instead of criticizing this position” of Pedro Nuno Santos, he chose to point to his own.
“I am fully prepared, I am here to tell people what I want to do as the leader of the government from an economic and social point of view, improving the living conditions of the people and implementing an ambitious growth project,” he said.
The SDP leader considered that “all possibilities are good” for such a confrontation of ideas, but admitted that “everyone has their own strategy,” saying that he did not want to interfere with the strategy of the PS.
“If there is a debate that interests citizens, without ignoring other candidates, then among all the decisions that the Portuguese take in the legislature, there is one that is in the foreground, namely the decision about who will become prime minister, and then there is only two candidates: the leader of AD and the leader of PS,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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