Former PSD leader Márquez Mendes called this Wednesday for a “strong vote, a mass vote” in the AD to ensure the stability of the government and said that if Luis Montenegro becomes Prime Minister, he will pleasantly surprise the country.
“If he becomes prime minister, as I hope and wish, he will surprise many more. I will still see many Portuguese people saying: in the end, he is better than I thought, in the end, he is better than I imagined,” said Luis Marques. Mendes at the AD campaign rally in Barcelos, Braga district, which concludes the penultimate day of the campaign this Wednesday.
The current TV commentator and State Councilor, who led the SDP between 2005 and 2007, gave a speech the following Sunday addressed to those still undecided about their vote, defending the need for change, stability, a “prime minister of trust” and warning against protest voting.
“We cannot waste time on elections and election campaigns (…) The country needs normality,” says Marques Mendes, recalling that European elections will be held in June, local elections in 2025 and presidential elections in 2026.
Recalling that the Portuguese “for better or for worse” gave an absolute majority to the PS two years ago, “but things didn’t go very well,” the former deputy and leader of parliament left an appeal to voters.
“If people want change safely, with calm, if they want stability, a strong vote is needed, a mass vote in AD, because stability is necessary for governance, for dialogue in the Assembly of the Republic, for dialogue with social partners, to establish a minimum of consensus between the main parties for the good of the country,” he defended.
Marques Mendes, who headed the list of deputies from Aveiro in 2002, from which Luis Montenegro was first elected, wanted to leave his personal guarantee of the qualities of the current PSD leader as prime minister.
“One of the important questions for those who are undecided is to find out who will be prime minister: people want change, but they don’t want adventure, they want change safely,” he said.
According to the former minister, Luis Montenegro “is a good guarantee for those who are still undecided because he is a trustworthy person”, saying that he is confident that he will be “a prime minister who can be trusted.”
“Three or four months ago in Portugal there were people who doubted Luis Montenegro, whether he was really ready to become prime minister (…) In these last weeks and days, people are very surprised by Luis Montenegro, pleasantly surprised, positively surprised,” he said, praising his performance in the debate and campaign, “as it should be, in a positive way.”
Stressing that he has known Montenegro for 25 years, Mendes praised his “tremendous capacity for work, great strength of conviction and leadership,” “reformist spirit and great capacity for dialogue and compromise.”
“I say to the hesitant people: I understand you, you need a reliable prime minister, you have this reliable man, this man is not a radical, this man is not impulsive, this man is in the middle, he is an example who should be the Prime Minister of Portugal,” – he said.
Márquez Méndez also warned of the “illusion and deception” he saw as the protest vote: “You vote for one and the other seems to rule, this is a vote of deception, it already happened in 2015 and could happen again now. First Who wants to fall, on Monday only the one who wants to fall.”
In his speech, he thanked him for the opportunity to “miss” his political family, of which he said he was “very proud”, and sharply criticized socialist governance.
“Over the past eight years there has been an unforgivable failure in the left government: the degradation of the welfare state has reached unprecedented proportions,” he said.
On an economic level, he argued that “the time has come to put an end to the little litany with the theory of small steps”, given that Portugal was already a success story during the government of Cavaco Silva and the first PS. leader Antonio Guterres, whom he praised twice in his speech.