DECISION 22: this was not what Marcelo wanted
This was not what Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa wanted. The overwhelming majority was a needle in a haystack, from the point of view of probabilities a few months ago, but that’s not the only issue. It’s on the right.
Since his first election, in 2016, the President of the Republic has always been concerned with the right and with the restoration of the right. Because Marcelo believes in the political space of the center (which, by the way, he practiced when he led the PSD in the opposition). And because these years were alerted to the risks of lack of organic representation, not only on the left but also on the right.
On the left, the “lack of organic representation” gave rise to new unions, more radical and closely linked to social networks. On the right, it made room for the growth of Chega.
Chega is not only a far-right party, it is a party that imposes itself more through protest than through proposal. Ventura’s keyword in Parliament has so far been the word “shame” and the party’s speech is in favor of almost nothing and against almost everything. Against “what” almost” (who doesn’t?), against “the system” (which generated it), against “heats up the scum, the thief, the gamma”. Apart from strong phrases such as life imprisonment and chemical castration, three electoral program sheets remain.
The life of Chega in Parliament will probably be like this: instead of one deputy shouting “shame”, it will be 12. But the party grows, in representation and in funding. It is the third largest in the Assembly.
The Liberal Initiative is not anti-system, Enough is. It has more vocation to destroy what exists than to build anything. And that has to worry Marcelo. And not just because it originates in the space on the right.
Rio, who remains as leader of the PSD until the vote in Parliament, is just waiting for a political burial. Bem asks that his succession be made “within the party”, with restraint and giving a “mature air and without great hysteria”. Luís Montenegro already collects public support, Miguel Pinto Luz gives an air of his grace, Jorge Moreira da Silva is being quoted and Paulo Rangel wrote an article in Público that is ambiguous enough to understand whether he is advancing or not waiting. The name is not indifferent, but it will be four years to go against an absolute majority.
Marcelo was never a viewer of anything. Adopt a new face of an absolute majority government, which can be, for example, a euthanasia law to which Marcelo will be able to do little. And other dossiers exist where there can be confrontation, as in the case of regionalization. But the President is not also fixed on the right. Because he will certainly want the PSD again with head, torso and limbs, not in the current dismemberment.
This is Marcelo’s last term. When you leave Belém, what right will there be in Portugal? The answer is not indifferent to us. Not for him.