Former Republic President Anibal Cavaco Silva said on Thursday there was no reason to “stop worrying” about the government’s performance.
At the end of the Five Decades of Democracy: What Has Changed conference held at Lisbon’s Quartel Carmo, the former head of state and former prime minister was asked if he supported the concerns expressed in recent weeks about the current socialist government.
“Is there any reason not to worry?” – he only answered.
Speaking to Lusa and CNN Portugal, Anibal Cavaco Silva declined to talk about other topics, indicating that he attended the “scientific conference” to “listen to two North American political science professors.”
“For a very special reason, I know some of Sheri Berman’s work on social democracy. She is a political science researcher in the United States who has written the most on social democracy in Europe,” he said.
And he said that this was the reason that led him to this initiative of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.
“I will not make any comments. It should be emphasized here what the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation decided to do, organize this initiative and publish this book with a very thick volume about what is important in Portuguese politics,” said Cavaco Silva. .
At this conference, in which a discussion took place between researchers Daniel Zieblatt and Sheri Berman on the threats to democracy, the book “O Essential da Política Portuguesa” was presented.
Last week, on the sidelines of a book launch by SDP parliamentary leader and university professor Joaquim Miranda Sarmento Sarmento, Cavaco Silva considered that the political situation, which he classified as “very dangerous” two months ago, has since worsened “much more than I expected”, has not desiring, however, to go into the details of what he meant.