The prime minister did not see the President of the Republic’s tirade about his ability to “put up with everything” as criticism. It’s a good blotter,” Marcelo said in an interview with CNN Portugal. António Costa was “happy” with the recognition and how bad it would be for the president to worry about “a prime minister who, listening to good ideals, does not listen to them.” He confesses to having a good relationship with Marcelo, based on an “older personal relationship”.
In the interview the night before, the President had commented that Costa had understood, like no other political leader, the advantages of staying close to the President of the Republic. “The prime minister realized that there were different electorates and he realized that he could walk more towards the center with the proximity of the president,” argued Marcelo. Costa refuses to go that far in analyzing a possible collage of his own. “I don’t know what this collage is about, but there is one thing that I have been trying to do and I also did with the previous president, which is a good institutional relationship.”
He acknowledges that at first, with Cavaco Silva, it was not so easy, due to the presidential doubts about the exit from the government that brought Costa to power, but he recalls that later he even invited the then head of state to preside over a meeting of the Council of Ministers, before finishing functions in Belém. That day, he recalled, Cavaco showed “the knowledge that he had accumulated with ten years as Prime Minister”, a longevity in office that, without interruption, Costa will exceed the mandate until 2026 and, at this time, he has been in office. for almost seven years). But today he assures that he did not have the “wisdom” of Cavaco at that time and still does not have it. “There is still a long way to go in ten years.”
Regarding Marcelo, he assumes that they maintain “a good institutional relationship” and says that he is “satisfied with the evaluation made by the President” of his performance. Regarding the specific expression, that of the “dryer”, he laughs and swears that they have called him “much worse” things.
And he respects his assessments, especially as a lawyer with whom he refuses to disagree in the specific case of listening to doctors. Marcelo said that the excuses of responsibility of the SNS medical staff “are worth nothing legally.” Costa says that “it would be difficult to disagree with someone like Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa”, of whom he was a student, he recalled for the second time. He refused to add his own comment to the question and acknowledged the “management problem” that exists in the SNS.
“We cannot always and only respond with more means, more means, more means. If we look, since 2016 the SNS budget has already increased by 40%, the professionals at the service of the SNS have already increased by more than 20%”. It does not exclude that it may be necessary to continue “continuing to reinforce” the resources, but that “better management” is also needed.
Source: Observadora
