The “boldness” of comparing himself to Cavaco, Barroso, Moreira da Silva, Moedas and Gabriel Attal

“The young man who is feared” – in Nuno Melo’s pun, for being “a talented person in the media and political firmament” and who is not “a member of the Government that we fired way back when [referência a Marta Temido]”, in the provocative words, to the PS, of Luís Montenegro who sees in Bugalho “boldness” and “merit” and even the “coherence” of an AD choice – he is equal to Cavaco Silva, Durão Barroso, Carlos Moedas, Jorge Moreira da Silva, Gabriel Attal [primeiro-ministro francês] and even with “Dr. Luis Montenegro [que] He does not intend to put in his retirement papers, on the contrary, he is starting his journey as Prime Minister”.

Feeling the need to respond to those who consider his age – 28 years old – a disadvantage, Sebastião Bugalho recalled that “the French Prime Minister is 34 years old, I’m just a candidate for the European Parliament”; that it was like this “with a young Algarve man from Boliqueime, who got a scholarship to study in England and returned to his country – to later become Prime Minister and President of the Republic”; that “it was like this with a young man from Almada, who heard the Revolution on the radio in the early hours of the morning and ran to the cacilheiro, to see Liberdade up close – and later become Prime Minister and President of the European Commission”; that “it was like this with a young man from Alentejo from Beja, who went to Paris to study thanks to the Erasmus program, became an engineer and returned to his country – to later become European Commissioner and Mayor”; and that was the case with another 28-year-old young man who, in 1999, “became the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Climate Change, and later Minister for the Environment”.

And then, the comparison with Luís Montenegro “that I have noticed (…) does not intend to put in the papers for retirement, on the contrary, he is beginning his journey as prime minister” – and who at the age of 29 was elected deputy for the first time.

It is “in the name of this European dream”, and in the belief in Europe, that he is running, but “more than that: I am here because I believe in the Europe that Portuguese democracy has helped to build since 1986 (…) It has always been here , in the common space that we represent, that the European dream vibrated and was fulfilled”.

In the closing session of Universidade Europa, which also served for the formal presentation of the AD list for the European elections, the majority of the effective candidates and alternates of the Democratic Alliance were present, as well as ministers Paulo Rangel and Pedro Duarte, the general secretary of the PSD , Hugo Soares, deputies and leaders of both parties and a “talisman”.

Sebastião Bugalho thanked the presence, in the front row, of former PSD leader Manuela Ferreira Leite, highlighting that she was the last social-democratic president to win a European one, in 2009, [nem Passos Coelho, nem Rui Rio que seguiram o conseguiram] the first time Paulo Rangel was head of the list – the PSD elected eight MEPs that year and the PS got seven places. In 2014, the result was reversed and in 2019 the PS widened the gap: it elected nine and the PS fell to six MEPs.

“I hope [Manuela Ferreira Leite] serve as a talisman for this candidacy”, was the expressed hope.