Presidential candidate Jorge Pinto delivered close to 10,000 signatures to the Constitutional Court this Wednesday, December 17th, to formalize his entry into the race for Belém, a number that he said proves the vitality of his candidacy.
Speaking outside the Palácio Ratton, in Lisbon, Jorge Pinto said he had collected close to 10,000 signatures in total – around 7,500 digital and the rest on paper -, exceeding the mandatory minimum of 7,500.
“These almost 10,000 signatures are proof of the vitality of this candidacy and the vitality of this way of seeing the role of the Presidency of the Republic, a dust-free way, but no less realistic, less responsible, but certainly also optimistic and hopeful for the Portugal that we are going to build together”, he stated.
Asked about the low results attributed to him in recent polls, the candidate supported by Livre highlighted that there is a large percentage of undecided voters in these results and that he intends to convince this group of voters by explaining to them that “there is a new, different, but for the better, way of doing politics”.
Regarding whether a bad result in January will harm Livre, Jorge Pinto stressed that the “candidacy will go well” and have a “good result”, but assured that, if not, the responsibility lies exclusively with him and “it will never have a result” from his party.
Jorge Pinto was also asked about the words of the PS leader, who said that Seguro was the only candidate on the left with the possibility of going to the second round and asked for responsibility from the names supported by Livre, PCP and BE, and replied that he is not running to “follow anyone, whether on the left or on the right”.
“I’m not sure that José Luís Carneiro’s message was for the left, in fact I want to believe that it was very much for his own party, (…) let’s look at what the polls say is the result of the PS in legislative elections and at the same time the result of António José Seguro’s candidacy officially supported by the PS. It seems to me that between the lines, in fact, José Luís Carneiro is speaking to the activists and supporters of his own party”, he added.
The candidate for Belém also commented on the minister’s words about public student residences, considering them “very unfortunate” and far from his vision of “universalism in access to housing for students in higher education”.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, argued that public residences must have students from different social strata, otherwise, giving priority to scholarship holders, they will deteriorate more quickly.