Portugal. The novel continues, the right is on the moon
The exchange of pennants between Paulo Rangel and Rui Rio is still alive and well. If on Monday the current president took advantage of the holiday to send an email to militants appealing for them to “reflect” on the possible postponement of the rights until after the legislative ones, already yesterday Rangel responded with another one stressing the importance of keeping straight on the scheduled date.
In Rangel’s words, the new PSD internals are vital to ensure the legitimacy of the one who will be “the candidate for prime minister”. For the MEP, this is the only way that the party can present itself to the amendments in “full force” – that is, the opposite of what Rio defended on Monday. Furthermore, in a curious phrase, he notes that it is not necessary to “suspend democracy” to achieve a good result: “We do not need to ‘suspend’ democracy to win the legislative ones. Rather, we need the new leader of the PSD to be legitimized by the militants and with the mandate to compete on equal terms and in full general force, becoming the head of the Government of our country”. Rangel also considers that this is “a historic moment” because “the PSD militants have in their hand the power to, at the same time as they elect their leader, choose the next prime minister of Portugal”.
And why should he be elected chosen for such a position? According to the explanations to the militants in this email, his candidacy is “the only one that meets all the conditions to unite the PSD, [para o] make grow, [e para o] to win in the next legislatives”. This union is essential for a mission because, in his view, it is only through “a united party” that it achieves its “majority vocation”.
Also in the letter, Paulo Rangel cements that his project involves “leading the entire non-socialist space”, guaranteeing to refuse “agreements with the radical Right [Chega]”Or a“ central bloc of parties and interests”. Placing the burden of blame on the previous ones on António Costa, Rangel notes that this is the time to put all the “attentions” on the PSD. “We are going to break with the mistakes of socialist governments, which condemned us to 20 years of stagnation, dragging us to the tail of Europe”, he says. Finally, he highlights “social mobility” as his main priority for the Portuguese: “the time has come for the country to come out of this decline and give every Portuguese the opportunity to ‘move up in life’ again”.