Portugal needs a strong, united and victorious PSD – O Jornal Económico
You have to go back a decade to find a year with an electoral calendar as full as last year. Regional of the Azores in October 2020, Presidential in January of this year, Local authorities in September and, now, in the coming months, new Legislatives at the door. Only in 2009 – a year of sad memory for the Portuguese, who saw their nation enter the ruin that would lead to external financial intervention, after years of socialist governance by José Sócrates – did they take place more advanced than in 2021.
Despite an unbelievable socialist tacticism, which led to the first and only second lead in Portugal and consequent new revisions for the Assembly of the Republic, what is coming is everything but a fair amount for the left and for the PS.
Who will be at the head of Portugal’s destinies in the next four years, succeeding António Costa, the same one who ruled over us without a mandate from the people, who has now consummated a divorce with the other leftist parties, who lived “maritally” in a contraption without the majority of the confidence of the Portuguese, without any work done or relevant investments, but with a media agenda designed with all precision to satisfy all the electoral criteria that lie ahead?
Whose electoral victory will be on the night of January 30th? From António Costa or the new PSD leader who had come out of the November 27 internal updates? One thing seems almost certain: right in internal advantage, the PSD President who wins as his directs will be the candidate for prime minister to win the national election and chart the paths of development, all knowing that there will hardly be a single absolute winner, a single one to achieve in January the majority of deputies in the Assembly of the Republic.
The hope of the Portuguese is really and only the alternative under construction in the PSD. Rui Rio or Paulo Rangel, one of the two will be the candidate in the January elections, prime minister of Portugal. This is a historic moment, as before the Portuguese go to the polls, it will be up to the social-democratic militants to choose which of the two meets as the best conditions to give hope and govern Portugal.
I have the highest personal estimate for Rui Rio, a resilient, serious and competent Politician who has been in the last three decades in the local and national political struggle, which I supported in 2020 to lead the PSD, already after the 2019 legislatives, in a cycle that only autarchic was expected, but I understand in conscience and freedom that we need a new affirmation and collective hope, around the one who has the best conditions to lead the PSD and Portugal in the coming years.
The country needs a strong, united, mobilized and ambitious PSD, focused on civil society and with a vision for economic growth and social development. Paulo Rangel may be the expected novelty, who has “world”, experience and solid professional and political experience, having already been Parliamentary Leader and Deputy in the Assembly of the Republic, and currently vice-president of the European People’s Party.
In these updates, which are direct, it is up to each of the PSD militants, and not to the municipal or district directive structures, to lose, in internal democracy, entrusting their personal vote.
It will be a journey through Portugal until January, where everything is open, as the big decisions will, as always, be left to the people. I believe in serious and true work, with a sense of State and responsibility, for the PSD to deserve the trust of voters and govern Portugal.