The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, argues that it is necessary to materialize the word dialogue and that everyone has to make an effort to bring positions closer together.
“Everyone actually talks a lot about dialogue, but everyone has to make an effort to bring positions closer together. Let’s try to do so”Luís Montenegro told journalists, in Pedrógão Grande, north of the Leiria district, after the military ceremony commemorating the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.
Recognizing that it is necessary to materialize the word dialogue, the prime minister added that “there are, for sure”, meeting points between PS and PSD for the future.
Luís Montenegro’s statements were made after the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that the result of the Europeans showed that the Portuguese told the Government that it has to involve the opposition.
Asked whether the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, highlighted Sunday’s victory in the European elections, Luís Montenegro, also leader of the PSD, declined to comment, referring to the celebrations of the Portugal Day, which celebrates “the Portugueseness, the Portuguese soul, the sense of unity, cohesion and independence” of the country, stressing that “this is what matters today”.
Upon arrival in Pedrógão Grande, where he was present at the Portugal Day celebrations, Pedro Nuno Santos declared that the electoral result demonstrates that “the Government [eleito pela coligação AD â PSD/CDS-PP/PPM] you also need to want to involve parliament and the opposition”.
For the PS leader, “it is very clear that the Portuguese did not like the way the Government was dealing with Parliament and the opposition”.
“If not, the Government that took office two months ago hadn’t just lost some elections,” he said.
Pedro Nuno Santos stressed that the Government took office “two months ago” and that it had a “last month with an intense campaign, with measures after measures”, and, even so, it “lost the European elections”.
Asked by journalists whether the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, understood this message, the PS general secretary said he hopes “he understood”.
Pedro Nuno Santos reaffirmed that the PS will not be a “factor of instability”, highlighting that it is not the party he leads that has excluded “any desire for dialogue”.
The PS was the party with the most votes, with 32.1% and eight MEPs, in Sunday’s European elections, ahead of the Democratic Alliance, which had 31.1% and seven mandates, according to the provisional results.
According to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration, Chega, which elected two MEPs, was the third political force, with 9.79%.
Also with two deputies elected, the Liberal Initiative (IL) obtained 9.07% of the votes.
The Left Bloc (BE) collected 4.25% of the votes and the CDU (PCP/PEV) 4.12%, obtaining one MEP each.
The celebrations of the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities are centered this year in Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos and Pedrógão Grande, municipalities affected by the fires of June 2017, which resulted in 66 deaths and 253 injured. These fires also destroyed around half a thousand homes and 50 businesses.
