AD Street in Porto lifts the mood of Montenegro, escaping the rain

The Democratic Alliance caravan concluded its traditional visit to Santa Catarina in Porto this Thursday, starting with rain that stopped when leader Luis Montenegro joined the delegation and said he was very happy about Sunday’s elections.

The delegation first concentrated on Praça dos Poveiros, where it started at around 17:15, then continued on to Praça da Batalha, where the PS caravan had previously been located, which it never encountered.

To avoid this transition, PSD general secretary Hugo Soares organized several stops along the way where supporters chanted songs, sometimes in the rain.

For the same reason, just half an hour after the start, the president of the PSD and SDS-PP, Luis Montenegro and Nuno Melo, joined hundreds of people who walked along part of the Rua de Santa Catarina in heavy rain. truce from there.

Halfway through the journey, which lasted about 45 minutes and ended at the rally site, in a transparent tent in Dom Joao I Square, Montenegro, the media asked if he was excited.

“In many ways, as you can see, I think this is an expression of the growing affection of the people, the Portuguese, which fills us with responsibility, but with the idea that elections are only held on Sunday. Let us mobilize the Portuguese people for great change and for a cycle of prosperity and justice in Portugal,” he said.

Asked if he was afraid to abstain, he expressed confidence that “the Portuguese will have a good turnout on Sunday.”

“It is clear that from now on, all the efforts we can make to encourage Portuguese men and women to choose their future will be positive efforts. And I know, I feel that this movement for change will also mobilize for participation,” he defended.

SDS-PP leader Nuno Melo expressed his belief that these were the “biggest riots” he had ever been involved in in Santa Catarina, including the one that occurred in 2015 in the SDS/SDS-PP Portugal a Frente coalition “

The riot got off to a confusing start, with numerous media clashes before the campaign structure managed to form a bubble around the leaders of the two parties.

The leaders of the AD list from Porto Miguel Guimarães and from Viana do Castelo, Aguiar Branco, PSD vice-presidents Paulo Rangel, António Leitan Amaru, Margarida Balceiro Lopes and the leaders of the Social Democrats Pedro Reis and Pedro Alves were some of those present on this street .

In addition to PS, the Liberal Initiative was also located near AD Street; the street action was planned for 17:30.

During the trip they sang “Victory, victory”, asked “Luis Montenegro in São Bento”, and the PSD leader, always accompanied by his wife, waved his arms a lot, giving kisses to the few popular people who managed to do so. get through security and even take a “selfie” with Nuno Melo.

At one point he climbed a pole and waved a giant PSD flag before being hoisted onto his shoulders, making a “V” for victory and shouting “Portugal, Portugal” along with his supporters.

Before the start, the AD pre-election structure handed out blue raincoats with the abbreviation of the coalition, blue-orange hats – which were useful at the beginning of the march even without the leaders of the SDP and SDS-PP – and took large white balloons and oranges.

If the rain did not discourage rally participants, Montenegro also expressed confidence that it would not demobilize voters to vote in early legislative elections on Sunday.

“I am very confident that Portuguese men and women will express their political will with active participation and also give more strength to the next government to move this country forward, to be able to mobilize the potential that exists in every person, in every Portuguese, in every institution, every company, to create more wealth if we are more just from a social point of view,” he said in another speech to reporters.

The entrance to the rally was also met with some confusion: many of those who participated in the rally no longer had a place inside the tent, and were left to watch the words of Montenegro, Melo and Guimarães on the street.