Marcelo rejects intervention in SDP’s withdrawal from Chega

The President of the Republic refused this Wednesday any interference in the PSD’s decision not to accept government agreements or to have support for “racist or xenophobic, opportunistic or populist policies or politicians”, saying that the parties determine their course.

“The president never interferes in party strategies. The last thing he has to do is to influence the election of party leaders, the strategy of party leaders, the orientation of party leaders. This is not his role,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, who spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Third Congress of the Democratic Opposition, which began this Wednesday morning at the University of Aveiro.

The head of state also clarified that “it is the parties that determine their course, and the president must put himself on a different plane from this.”

Chega leader Andre Ventura will be received this Wednesday afternoon in Belém by the President of the Republic so that he can clarify whether he accepts a government decision that includes his party.

On Tuesday, Chega’s leader said there was an articulation between SDP leader Luis Montenegro and the President of the Republic, in which the latter accused Montenegro of forcing Montenegro to say that there would be no government agreements with Chega.

“The SDP should get rid of the President of the Republic and figure out what she wants autonomously,” Ventura challenged, pointing out that “the SDP wants to govern either with the PS or with Chega.”

The president of Chega felt that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “is a prominent political analyst, assertive, of course, and who likes this game.”

In an interview with CNN Portugal on Monday, the SDP president dismissed the possibility of making government agreements or supporting “racist or xenophobic, opportunistic or populist policies or politicians”, which was seen as demarcating the Ventura party.