On December 2 last year, Luís Montenegro had committed himself, if he were prime minister, to stop using the new institutional symbol of the Costa Government — which generated controversy for having simplified the image, removing the armillary sphere, the corners and castles.
“That’s what makes all the difference, in our project we don’t make our historical and identity references succumb to an idea of being more sophisticated, with us there’s no such thing. Enough of plastic policy”, Montenegro then stated, in an initiative by the Council National Strategic.
During the election campaign, former Prime Minister Durão Barroso also criticized the change in the Government’s institutional symbol, saying that those who do not identify with the national coat of arms “are not true Portuguese”.
At a rally in Santa Maria da Feira (Aveiro), Durão Barroso said he wanted to address a topic that he considered had not been given much attention by the media, the change in the institutional image of the Government by the PS executive.
“They said that the logo, our old weapons, were not inclusive enough, that there is a part of people who do not identify with them. But if these Portuguese people do not identify with our coat of arms, then for me they are not true Portuguese, we don’t have more inclusive symbols than these”, he argued, thanking the president of the PSD for having already promised that, if he becomes prime minister, he will stop using the new symbol
