The PSD president denied this Friday in an interview with CNN Portugal that the party could make agreements with the government or have support for “racist or xenophobic, opportunistic or populist policies or politicians”.
In an excerpt from the interview, already available online on the TV channel’s website, which will be broadcast in full from 22:00, journalist Maria Joao Aviles called on Luis Montenegro to clarify relations with the Chega party.
“I want to guarantee the Portuguese one thing: we will have no racist politics, no politicians in government, no xenophobes, no opportunists, no populists. Or political support, if you like,” assured the SDP chairman.
Luis Montenegro also added that he would not have the political support of those who hold “demagogic populist positions”: “And, above all, I do not want immaturity or irresponsibility in my government,” he added.
In this passage, the chairman of the Social Democrats repeated that he understood – contrary to what the President of the Republic had said – that the SDP was already an alternative to the PS government.
“There is an alternative, and I am an alternative with my party, the SDP. It is so clear that even the argument that is used and worth it, the polling argument, implies precisely that this alternative exists. , He said. .
Luis Montenegro will have an audience with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa next Tuesday, after a week in which they publicly disagreed whether the SDP is now an alternative to the government.
The President of the Republic once again ruled out the possibility of a dissolution earlier in the week, citing the situation and the lack of “an obvious political alternative”, while Luis Montenegro indirectly replied two days later to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who assured that he was not in the pocket of either the government or the opposition.
“The SDP and its leader are not in anyone’s pocket, they have complete independence in their political actions, and the SDP assures the country, the Portuguese and the President of the Republic that it is an alternative to the PS government and that we are ready to bear all the consequences of being alternative when it is convenient,” Montenegro said on Wednesday.
A day later, the head of state promised to warn if one day he changed his stance on the issue of a political alternative and a break in the work of the legislature, faced with the statement of the chairman of the SDP that he was ready to be the government.
“When I have to express a different position of the president on this issue, I will say (…) There are many opinions. The position of the president who has to decide is the president,” added Marcelo.