“Practically impossible”: the consensus phrase at the PS meeting | P.S.

Pedro Nuno Santos’ strategy, that it is “practically impossible” for the PS to approve Luís Montenegro’s first State Budget, was not challenged in the first meeting of the political commission after the elections, PÚBLICO learned.

“They are going to govern, they have to present a stable solution. Practically impossible, that’s exactly what it is,” said the PS general secretary in the final intervention of the Political Committee meeting, when it was already past one in the morning on Friday. “We have to be responsible, but it is not our obligation to make life easier for the PSD,” he said, according to sources present at the meeting.

In his intervention at the end of the meeting, Pedro Nuno announced his objective of continuing to lead the PS for a long time: “I was elected in December, I had Congress in January, elections in March and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. Without fear, focused on work, without getting into their speech or giving in to blackmail.”

José Luís Carneiro, the secretary general’s opponent in the PS’s direct debate, decided not to intervene in the meeting, although at the entrance he signaled his disagreement with the strategy unanimously approved on Monday at the national secretariat – the fact that it was “practically impossible ” the PS to make the PSD Government Budget viable.

Upon arrival at Largo do Rato, at the beginning of the meeting, Carneiro stated that it was “too early” to talk about the future Budget and that the discussion, “which is still a long way off”, is not, for now, “timely”.

The previous day’s loser, Augusto Santos Silva, who lost his place as deputy for the Outside of Europe circle to Chega, attempted a kind of farewell at the Political Committee meeting, but noted that he only intends to retire at the age of 75. And there’s a lot of time left, because he’s only 67.

Pedro Nuno Santos thanked Augusto Santos Silva for his work and asked for a round of applause for the still President of the Assembly of the Republic, once his bête noirewith whom he held public discussions about the PS strategy.

One of the most anticipated speeches of the night was that of Francisco Assis, who supported Pedro Nuno in the internal dispute and who has remained silent since the elections. If, in the past, Assis often defended understandings between the PS and PSD (until recently after the elections in the Azores), at the Political Commission meeting he sided with Pedro Nuno Santos’ strategy and considered the term “practically impossible”. correct to use.

Along the same lines as the leadership, Francisco Assis argued that the PS has a difficult “double fight”: a fight against the AD Government and against the threat to the regime that Chega poses. He stated that the PS must make it clear that it is in opposition to the Government and that this means that it will have the “natural propensity to vote against the Budget”. “Only in exceptional circumstances will it not be possible to do so,” he said.

The former president of the Economic and Social Council also stated that “it would be absurd for the PS to be available to respond to an appeal that was not made to it”, noting that “the AD preferred Chega to the PS” in the first vote of the new legislature for the constitution of the board of the Assembly of the Republic. He argued that the formulation of “practically impossible” – used by Pedro Nuno – is correct and different from “impossible”, because it “safeguards the PS”. And he mocked those who, from the outset, already defend the viability of Montenegro’s first budget: “I see some PS more concerned with the governance conditions of the AD than the AD itself”. However, he spoke out against an “opposition gimmick”, because of the challenge by the leader of the Left Bloc for an understanding between all left-wing parties. In the end, Pedro Nuno would respond that he welcomes all parties and that “those who have no doubts about their ability to lead on the left welcome everyone”.

Sérgio Sousa Pinto, another member of the so-called “right wing” who supported Pedro Nuno Santos in the PS’s direct elections, stated that the PS cannot leave the political center to the PSD, since “caught between the PS and Chega, the PSD has unique conditions to compete for this space”.

Regarding the future Budget, Sérgio Sousa Pinto said that “the responsibility of creating conditions to govern lies with Montenegro”, that the PS does not have the “vocation or duty to constitute itself as a crutch for the PSD governments” and that its role is to be “ alternative”. However, he warned that the party “should not be conditioned by taking hasty positions” and that the elections will take place when Montenegro wants. Sérgio Sousa Pinto considered that the vote for Chega reflects an “angry” electorate, which “can be conquered and recovered”.

It was Pedro Nuno Santos’ first test after the elections, which he easily passed. The second round it will be on Saturday, at the PS National Commission meeting, in Viseu.