Marcelo says that Montenegro has “rural behaviors” and that Costa was “slow” because he is oriental

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that the new prime minister has “rural behavior” and that António Costa was “slow” because he is oriental, in a meeting with international journalists at Vila Galé Ópera, on Tuesday night. He also revealed, at dinner with the Foreign Press Association in Portugal, that Luís Montenegro “gives him work” that the former socialist prime minister did not, due to his unpredictability.

“It’s a completely different stimulus, it’s not Lisbon or Porto. This is a person who comes from a deep urban-rural country, urban with rural behaviors. He is very curious and difficult to understand precisely because of this,” he told journalists, adding later that Montenegro is a great speaker and will win every debate.

He pointed out, however, that the new head of Government is a rhetorical, “old-fashioned” politician and once again compared him to António Costa.

“He is not an António Costa-style politician, much less a populist party type. It’s another style of speech, engaging, difficult to follow because of this involvement. It’s a style with another time.”

It was with this statement that the President of the Republic made the bridge to António Costa’s style which, according to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “was slow, oriental”.

“The Easterners are slow”, he pointed out, adding that Montenegro, despite not being Eastern, is also slow.

In statements to journalists from around the world, at a dinner that lasted four hours, Marcelo also said that Montenegro is reminiscent of “the old PSD”, a “profound” PSD.

“The old PSD was very much like this. The PS was the greater Lisbon and metropolitan area and the PSD was the rest, from the north and central north. And he is very, very, very this in the way he is,” he continued.

Montenegro “formed Government in an unthinkable way”

According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in his intervention at the journalists’ meeting to which SIC had access, Luís Montenegro only invited the ministers to the Government on the day he was going to deliver the list to the President of the Republic.

“[Montenegro] formed a Government in an unthinkable way. He invited each minister without anyone knowing who the other ministers were. They met by surprise at the end of the story. He began inviting ministers on the morning of the day he was going to deliver the list. It’s a risk,” he pointed out.

The head of state also had time to talk about the Democratic Alliance’s choices for the European elections in June, claiming that Montenegro kept it a secret until the end.

“The solution for the European list is typically an improvisation. He kept it a secret until the end. Every day I am surprised, with Prime Minister António Costa it was the opposite”, she said, referring, once again, that the current Prime Minister “has the reasoning of a traditional country”.