The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, denied this Saturday that he was tired of holding office and considered that at this time “it would be bad” to interrupt or shorten the mandate, given the context in which the country is experiencing. is passing through. Even so, Marcelo took advantage of his visit to the Rastrillo Solidarity Fair, in Lisbon, to leave new messages for António Costa, already with next year as a defining factor: “2023 will be the “first big test” in which “the rest of the legislature will depend”.
“No, I am not tired of the Presidency and, on the contrary, more President is needed at a time of more crisis, as is evident”, defended Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in statements to journalists. The head of state said that he arrived on Friday from Qatar and that he had “many commitments, many commitments, most of them social”, but he said that he never tires.
“I never get tired, they criticize me many times for never getting tired and other times for getting tired,” he said.
Speaking to journalists at the Rastrillo Solidarity Fair in Lisbon, the head of state also said that he will be “very attentive to what this year 2023 will be like”.
It is evident that 2022 was very marked because there were elections six or seven months ago. Now 2023 is a test, it’s the first big test before the 2024 european elections and these years are essential to prove how we face the crisis and how there are political conditions to carry out what the Portuguese want, which is to overcome this crisis”, he defended.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he was speaking “for the government and for the entire country.” “We know that there is a war, and we know that there is inflation and we know that 2023 will be worse than 2022, and how 2023 will be, the rest of the legislature will depend on that,” he stressed, noting that “It is a decisive year.”
Asked whether more support measures for companies and families will be necessary to help them face the crisis, the head of state said that “If the situation is worse in 2023 than in 2022, it will be difficult for it not to happen.”
“It is so logical, so logical, so logical that it follows from the nature of things. If, suddenly, inflation continues to be very high, if the situation of families deteriorates, if there is something that fortunately has not happened up to now, which is unemployment, then obviously social support has to increase”, he considered. And he said that the coming times will be “very hard”.
“The year 2023 will be a year of more war, we do not know until when, also inflation, we do not know until when, of more costs in the life of the Portuguese, we do not know until when. This implies, on the one hand, attention from the public powers in social support, but it also implies social solidarity, ”he said.
On the possibility of a downward revision of the economic forecasts, the President of the Republic pointed out that “nobody knows” and indicated that “the latest forecasts are more negative for all of Europe and for the whole world”.
When I say that increasing inflation is more negative or keeping it too high and decreasing the growth of wealth […]???????? Let’s see if it happens or not, it depends a lot, a lot, a lot on the duration of the war,” he considered.
Apart from the visit to this solidarity initiative, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was also questioned about statements by the Secretary General and Prime Minister of the PS, António Costa, who defended that Portugal, in the last seven years, has grown more than France, Spain and Germany, converging with the average of the European Union.
“Well, it happened. This year passed, was it possible why? Because the last quarter of 2021 was very good, the first quarter of 2022 was very good and in the rest we endured without losing what we feared losing”, declared the President.
The head of state warned, however, that “the problem is 2023 and in relation to 2023, if the war continues and inflation continues, what was frankly better than expected in 2022 will change to be worse in 2023.”
He was also questioned about the PSD proposal in the framework of the constitutional reform so that the President of the Republic has a single seven-year term (instead of the possibility of two terms out of five), Marcelo pointed out that this change has already defended him.
“I am not getting into the issue of constitutional review, it is an issue in which the President of the Republic has no powers and I, for example, in the past defended, when I was not President of the Republic, and even in the principle, when I applied, that the best solution would be a single term of seven years”, he pointed out.
However, I must admit that at this moment, with the war and the crisis, it would be bad if there were an interruption of the mandate, a shortening of the mandate, precisely because there has to be someone who faces the crisis and guarantees it, intervening. . And the President must intervene to guarantee, on the one hand, that the absolute majority complies with what it must comply -that is why it exists- and, on the other hand, to guarantee that there is an opposition that can be an alternative, as it is desirable that there be. alternatives in the future”, defended the head of state.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also pointed out that he is being more demanding in the second term.
“I am being. I have already sent a diploma to the Constitutional Court, I can send others,” he warned.
Source: Observadora
