Admiral Gouveia Melo warned this Thursday, December 18th, about the “swampy” situation in which Portugal lives, considering that democracy is showing “signs of fatigue”, of which the Portuguese votes are an example.
In an intervention at the Internacional Club de Portugal, in Lisbon, the presidential candidate used the expression of former Prime Minister António Guterres to say that the swamp has “stagnant waters that are rotting democracy”.
Referring to his own example, Gouveia e Melo stated that when he wanted to “participate” in democracy, he was “attacked by everyone in the system”. For the admiral, the system is the parties that – he repeated – are essential in governance and in the Assembly of the Republic, but represent a logic that is represented there but that should not be transposed to the presidency of the Republic.
“The President cannot be a person of faction”he said, considering that some candidates do not have “the size of a Cavaco Silva, Mário Soares or even Jorge Sampaio”, nor were they “winners” in their respective parties.
“My candidacy is non-partisan and independent of the divisive party logic”he highlighted, explaining that a president has to unite all Portuguese people and not bring ideology to the presidency.
According to the candidate, Portuguese politics is “unbalanced”, because before there was a central fulcrum and “Today it seems like we only want to march with the right leg, when we need the whole country”he said, adding that the political system is divided into three large parties, which makes him foresee governance problems in the near future.
The candidate also acknowledged that “he is not and was not prepared” for the debates in which he has participated on television, and in which “everything and everything is discussed, but not the future of Portugal”.
“One thing that bothers me about debates is the rhetorical and contentless starts”in which “a more sudden but empty reaction or response” is highly valued, he confessed.
Speaking about the international situation, the admiral expressed concern about Portugal’s lack of preparation and planning in the face of current dangers, in particular from Russia’s “war machine” which could implicate NATO at any moment.
According to the candidate, Portugal will spend on equipment without first planning its needs, investing in industrial centers in certain countries, which will worsen the development gap in this matter between the most and least developed countries, as is the case of Portugal.
Gouveia e Melo also considered the proposed labor law “useless” and expressed himself in favor of the lobbying law, because – he said – he is in favor of regulation and making it clear who does what and why.
Asked about how he intended to act in favor of justice reform, he said that the way to help is “constant pressure”. In his initial intervention, the admiral had criticized the justice system for “increasingly intervening in politics”, through “processes that leave doubts”.