There are several videos with controversial statements, some more than others, which the President of the Republic has already tried to justify. Listen to all the audios here and understand what happened
Luís Montenegro compared to António Costa, an “unforgivable” mistake by his son or a “Machiavellian” act by the Attorney General of the Republic. It was not clear whether the President of the Republic understood that, more than being heard, he was being recorded, but the controversial words he had with foreign journalists ended up leaving the meeting that lasted more than four hours, and in which the head of State He didn’t shy away from commenting anything. But nothing at all.
Furthermore, this Wednesday, in a clear attempt to alleviate the situation, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that journalists asked him if they could question him about everything. “Everything”, he replied, and so it was: they asked him everything and the President of the Republic answered everything. But really everything.
The “slow” and the “eastern”
One of the most controversial audios, if not the most, was the one in which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa drew comparisons between the current prime minister and the previous one. Without much contention, the President of the Republic stated that both were “slow”, but found a peculiar explanation for António Costa: he is “oriental”. Luís Montenegro, on the other hand, “is not oriental but is slow”.
“You can’t imagine how difficult it is for me to adapt to a new prime minister”, admitted Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the aforementioned dinner in a hotel in Lisbon, according to the sound provided to CNN Portugal, and in which the head of state outlined the profiles of the current and previous head of Government.
According to Marcelo, Montenegro’s style is “completely different” from that of António Costa. Montenegro “is not from Lisbon or Porto, he is a person who comes from a deep country, urban-rural, urban with rural behaviors.”
“It’s very curious and difficult to understand precisely because of that,” he added. Later, and asked about the reference to the prime minister as someone “rural”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa explained that he was talking about the party, of which he was also president, while the PS is more “urban”.
Even so, the current prime minister is, according to the President of the Republic, “a great speaker, who will win all parliamentary debates because of this”.
“But he is a rhetorical politician, old-fashioned, he is not a Prime Minister António Costa-style politician and much less a populist party style politician”, he is “discursive, engaging, difficult to follow”. With Luís Montenegro “I have surprises every day. With Prime Minister António Costa, it was the opposite, I tried to inform”.
“It’s stimulating, but for me it’s a lot of work. Prime Minister António Costa didn’t give me much work, it was predictable”, he added, only to later refuse to have made comparisons between the two.
Despite this, and hours after the controversial audios were heard, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa regretted saying: “No, nothing”.
The hurt with the son
Questioned countless times for a case revealed by TVI (from the same group as CNN Portugal), the President of the Republic has never spoken so freely about the case of the twins treated at Santa Maria Hospital.
Perhaps because he thought he was in an environment where he would not be recorded, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa openly confessed, and for the first time, that he had severed relations with his son, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, who had interceded without his father’s knowledge so that the girls obtained Portuguese nationality and could receive the most expensive medicine in the world, Zolgensma.
“I don’t know if I said anything there to the twins’ parents. I didn’t say anything to me. And that is unforgivable”, he told journalists. And that was the problem: Nuno Rebelo de Sousa did not inform his father at the time and, according to the head of state, he remained that way for the next six months, which led Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to cut ties with his son.
If this hadn’t been made completely clear in the audio, the subsequent clarification confirmed it: “No, I’m not talking, I’m not talking in general. I feel a lot of personal hurt, but I wasn’t the determining factor.”
Lucília as Machiavelli
“The first method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men around him.” This is what Nicolau Machiavelli wrote, whose nickname gave rise to a little-loved adjective: Machiavellian.
And then we enter a game of semantics. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that the Attorney General of the Republic, Lucília Gago, performed a “Machiavellian” act during Operation Influencer, the same one that brought down Prime Minister António Costa, the Government and, successively, the Assembly of the Republic, even if the head of state didn’t want it.
“If the prosecutor, with the same promptness with which she had taken the initiative to open an investigation also involving the Prime Minister a month before the Portuguese found out… I discovered, a few weeks later, that she had opened an investigation against third parties and in What a day? On November 7th. Which I found Machiavellian. Genre of balance, sophisticated balance. Very well… it opened, it opened”, stated Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Already cold, and asked by CNN Portugal if he had called Lucília Gago “Machiavellian”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa denied: ““No, I never said that, I was very careful with what I said in that particular, not talking about personal characteristics, nor I should speak about the Attorney General of the Republic.”
For all intents and purposes he didn’t say it, but did Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa look around before speaking?
Portugal in debt
Portugal bears responsibility for crimes committed during the colonial era. This is the understanding of the President of the Republic, who suggested paying reparations for past mistakes.
“We have to pay the costs. Are there actions that were not punished and those responsible were not arrested? Are there goods that were looted and were not returned? Let’s see how we can repair this”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at a dinner attended by several international journalists, many of them of Brazilian nationality.
At the event, Rebelo de Sousa said that Portugal “takes full responsibility” for the mistakes of the past and remembers that these crimes, including colonial massacres, had costs.
A year ago, in the welcoming session for Brazilian President Lula da Silva, which preceded the solemn session commemorating the 49th anniversary of the 25th of April in the Assembly of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that Portugal owed an apology, but above all, he had to take full responsibility for exploitation and slavery in the colonial period.
“It’s not just apologizing – duly, without a doubt – for what we did, because apologizing is sometimes the easiest thing to do, you apologize, turn your back, and the job is done. No, it’s taking responsibility for the future of what we did, good and bad, in the past”, he defended.
Over more than four centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported long distances by mostly European ships and merchants, and sold into slavery.
Coast in Europe? Let’s wait for the tsunami
In the same meeting with foreign correspondents, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa once again said that he believes that former Prime Minister António Costa will be the next president of the European Council.
“I think so,” he said, when asked about his opinion regarding Costa’s chances of presiding over one of the European Union’s highest bodies.
The Portuguese leader stated that, following the latest information released about the legal proceedings against the former head of Government for alleged irregularities, it appears that the process will proceed “more easily, more quickly”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also highlighted that everything indicates that the socialists will be the second most voted force in the European elections in June, “unless there is a tsunami”.
The President of the Republic highlighted that another factor favorable to Costa could be the fact that the Presidency of the European Commission is in the hands of the Popular Party, which would make sense for the Presidency of the European Council to go to the socialists, although this is not currently the case.
He highlighted not only the support that Costa may have within the socialist family, but also the sympathies he arouses within the European People’s Party and among liberals such as French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, these possible supporters are joined by other possible supporters, such as the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the Hungarian President, Viktor Orbán, and leaders from Eastern Europe.
“He will be a great president of the European Council and that is good for Europe and good for Portugal,” he said.
The President of the Republic highlighted that Europe “needs politicians with experience” and recalled that Costa was one of the prime ministers with the longest mandate.
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