2023-12-17 15:33:00
Published17. December 2023, 4:33 p.m.
Portugal: The socialists in battle order behind their new leader
In Portugal, the PS has chosen its new secretary general with Pedro Nuno Santos, who is closing ranks before the legislative elections. His predecessor resigned following a scandal.
Pedro Nuno Santos called for the “unity” of the Socialist Party before the next legislative elections.
AFP
After the victory of Pedro Nuno Santos as secretary general of the Portuguese Socialist Party, the party begins, this Sunday, to put itself in battle order behind its new leader with the aim of the next legislative elections on March 10. “My responsibility is to present an ambitious and reformist project,” declared Pedro Nuno Santos, who won 62% of the votes of PS activists, following the announcement of his victory on Saturday evening.
“But there is still a lot to do”, particularly in terms of housing, youth employment or health, he recognized in his speech, calling for the “unity” of the party before the next legislative elections.
The new socialist leader was to meet, at the end of the morning, with Antonio Costa, who resigned a month ago from the positions of Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PS, following seeing his name implicated in a drug trafficking affair. ‘influence. “We are counting on him,” said the man who became the ninth secretary general of the Party since its founding in 1973.
One of the suitors
Pedro Nuno Santos comes from the left wing of the party. Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, he has held several responsibilities in governments. This 46-year-old politician, with salt-and-pepper hair and beard, had been cited for several months as one of the contenders to succeed Antonio Costa.
In 2015, he played an important role with the radical left parties, which allowed the socialists to come to power. This agreement “was solid” and “worked well,” said Pedro Nuno Santos on Saturday, who did not close the door to new discussions with the left following the March 10 election.
Controversies and unity
The career of this politician, originally from the north of Portugal and who began his career with the Socialist Youth, is marked by several controversies. A year ago, he was forced to resign from his post as Minister of Transport, due to the scandal caused by the payment of severance pay of 500,000 euros to a director of TAP Air Portugal, while the public airline was the subject of a restructuring plan.
“We are learning” with these cases, he justified himself on Saturday evening, when he was questioned once once more regarding this controversy, preferring to recall that the intervention in TAP, during the Covid-19 health crisis, had made it possible to save the company.
His opponent in this internal PS vote, the current Minister of the Interior José Luis Carneiro, said he was available to cooperate with the new leadership. “From today, we are all socialists,” he said, coming from the centrist current of the party, which obtained nearly 36% of the votes.
Portugal plunged into political crisis on November 7, following a series of arrests and searches leading to the indictment of Antonio Costa’s chief of staff and his Minister of Infrastructure Joao Galamba, for a trafficking case of influence.
Close polls
The Socialist Party and the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (center right), appear today neck and neck for the legislative elections, according to several polls. The entire right should, however, obtain more deputies than the left, while the far-right Chega party might achieve a new electoral breakthrough, according to these opinion surveys.
(AFP)
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