Presidential candidate Cotrim Figueiredo classified this Sunday, December 28th, as “a bit of a mess” the end of the President of the Republic’s term, commenting on Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s decision to schedule the Council of State for January 9th.
“This decision is not very congruent with the fact that the President chose not to give the New Year’s speech under the pretext of not wanting to interfere in the presidential elections and then make this call for the Council of State”, said Cotrim Figueiredo, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the Feira dos 28, in Aveiro.
The presidential candidate thus commented on Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s decision to choose the date of January 9th, ten days before the presidential elections, to hold a Council of State to analyze the international situation.
Cotrim said that if he were in Marcelo’s place, he would wait for the second round of the presidential elections to attend the Council of State because, in his opinion, the matter that will be discussed there “does not seem to require urgent decisions”.
He also considered that there was “an attempt at compensation” on the part of the Head of State, highlighting the coincidence that this decision came at a time when there was talk of “political lack of coordination between the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic following Luís Montenegro’s visit to Ukraine”.
“It doesn’t really seem opportune to me and it’s a somewhat clumsy end of term on the President’s part”, he observed.
The IL presidential candidate and MEP maintained that if Marcelo does not want to interfere in the presidential elections, then “don’t do any of the events, not the end of year speech, not the State Council”.
“Inconsistencies are what seem a little erratic. Either you do neither or you do both (…) What I criticize is doing one thing and not doing another with the same argument. This is what I think gives me the idea of some disorientation”, concluded.
Cotrim also highlighted that this year the Portuguese particularly need the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic, as it will be the last year he spends in Belém, and he even left some clues for the themes he would choose: “I would speak clearly about the future and the confidence that the Portuguese must have in their abilities and in the possibility that they have of overcoming the problems that this future will bring, because it will also be full of opportunities. I would talk a lot about confidence, but I would prepare the Portuguese to have to fight for that confidence to have a positive impact”.