Antonio Costa: “What needed to be done in 2023 has been done”

“It has not been an easy year, but the truth is that we can come here with good news: next week the third and four payments to the European Commission will be transferred from the PDP, totaling €2,400 million. This is 2.4 million euros. euros that have been approved,” begins António Costa.

The Prime Minister also says that he believes “what was decisive in 2023 has been done”, that he wants Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s mandate to “go well to the end” and that he will always be available “personally or by phone to add optimism to faith.”

This is followed by the intervention of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who begins by mentioning that António Costa’s government was the longest in the 21st century and that “this is very important.”

The President of the Republic begins his speech by listing the main difficulties experienced since 2016, the “good news”, as well as the achievements of the Portuguese, especially in sports. Regarding 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic began, Marcelo states that “the Portuguese were excessive.” “We were always the first to open and close, and it was good for our economy,” he says. Later, Portugal had to deal with the war in Ukraine and, more recently, the war in the Middle East. Of these eight years, Marcelo says that “if those who lived this story do not tell it, people will forget the events.”

“There were a lot of things that didn’t go very well because of the mistakes that I made, that he and others made. This is part of politics. But one day, when we look at this situation from the outside, it is no coincidence that we decided to maintain their choice regarding the prime minister and president of the republic,” he says. Marcelo says he wanted to break the record of serving as prime minister for 10 years, but this is no longer possible.

“The memory of these eight years is a good memory and I would like to thank you on behalf of the Portuguese people for what you have done for Portugal,” he concludes.