Angola to leave OPEC over disagreement on oil production quotas
Photo: Lusa
The President of Portugal on Wednesday warned the prime minister, António Costa, that it will be difficult to replace him mid-term, arguing that the Portuguese “gave an absolute majority to a party, but also to a man”.
“It is the price of great victories, inevitably personal and intentionally personalised. And it is above all the respect for the will unequivocally expressed by the Portuguese for a legislature,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said at the swearing-in ceremony of the XXIII Constitutional Government at the National Palace of Ajuda in Lisbon.
The Head of State considered that the absolute majority of the PS in the legislative elections of 30 January provided the new executive with “exceptional conditions, without excuses or alibis, to be able to do what has to be done”, but stressed that in a democracy there is no place for “absolute power or dictatorship of the majority”.
Addressing António Costa directly, the president told him: “You gave the absolute majority to a party, but also to a man, your excellency, Mr prime minister, a man who, by the way, made a point of personalising the vote, by talking about two people for the head of the government.
“Now that you have won, and won for four and a half years, I am sure that your excellency knows that it will not be politically easy that the face that won the elections in an undisputed and remarkable way can be replaced by another halfway through. It was already not easy on 30 January, it became even more difficult after 24 February,” he added, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The 22nd Constitutional Government, which has the cabinet office minister, Mariana Vieira da Silva, as its “number two”, begins its duties with a longer horizon than usual, a legislalture until September or October 2026, as a result of early legislative elections.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.