A deal with Enough or IL? “PSD had an obligation to explore possibility”

O former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho argued that the PSD “had an obligation to explore” a parliamentary understanding with the Ache and the Liberal Initiative. The former governor also warned that the current government model is a “political trap” and ensured that, despite criticism, it is not a candidate for anything.

In an interview with SIC Notícias, the first on television after leaving the government, Passos Coelho began by explaining that his statements about the current day aim to “contribute to public debate and, in a way, to give people a view of what it could be useful to do in the circumstances we are living.”. 

“This can be useful for the government as well, if the government understands to hear other visions, since it is the government of my party,” he said.

Rabbit Steps said “find” that it has “some responsibilities” for the functions it has had in the past and that “they have not been exhausted because it has ceased to be ruler.”. 

“The time I was ahead of the PSD and the government was a very remarkable time, but it was also a time when people who got used to looking at me as someone – I think – who is attentive to what is the long and medium term, which is the future,” he added.

“It’s an exercise I think I have a duty to do,” he stressed.

However, he assured: “At this point I am not running for anything, nor am I preparing any applications. If I was, I'd say so. There is no reason not to.”.

“Country expected a significant change”

Passos Coelho followed with criticism of the Socialist Party (PS), recalling that the country lived “a very demanding time” during its governance and then “diving in day-to-day management”.

“ When we limit ourselves to day-to-day management and thinking less than we should in the long term, when the long term comes, we usually have reason to be dissatisfied,” he said.

In this sense, he considered that “in order for us to offer people a greater prospect of hope for the future, something must be made more transformed”.

The former Prime Minister stressed that, after the election of AD in 2024, “the country expected a significant change in the political orientation of the government and it took time to realize”.

Despite recognizing that the current government has “a program with some transformative ambition”, Passos Coelho considered that “this transformative action has been slow to move from the program to the actions of the government and to the reality of the country.”.

A deal with Enough or IL? “The PSD had an obligation to explore this possibility”

Referring to the Arrivo and the Liberal Initiative, the former Prime Minister stressed that “60% of Members of Parliament sit on the right hand of the Socialist Party” and “are available to do something different” from what was done during the years of socialist governance. 

“The PSD had an obligation to explore this possibility. I'm not saying that it would be an easy possibility, because it might not be easy for a parliamentary understanding between the PSD, the CDS, the Aquis and the Liberal Initiative... But it was important to try it”, he said.

“ We know that governments to transform something important need support: in the country and in Parliament,” he said.

For Passos Coelho, the “current model is a huge political trap” because “it gives the PSD the impression that it does not make it negotiate measures to the Left and to the Right, present itself as a kind of moor, waiting for people to give it the majority for any reason”.

André Ventura? “It’s a person with a lot of merit”

Asked about his relationship with the leader of the Aquida, André Ventura, Passos Coelho said he knows the politician “a few years ago” and described him as “a person with a lot of merit”.

“ I know him enough to think that he is a person with enough merit, or he had not created a party with the expression he has today, and that he is a politician who has shown a remarkable power of initiative”, he considered.

Back to political life? Only if PSD fails

Speaking again about the PSD, Passos Coelho said that, despite “a lot” of his party, his “concern is with the country” and “there are many people in the country who are very anxious and concerned”.

However, he stressed that he would only consider returning to active political life if he had the “possibility of different”. 

“ If I had to consider such a possibility, it would have to correspond to a situation where the PSD could not deliver a satisfactory result in the face of what the country needs, and I thought I could do it... If this happens, I will consider and take an initiative, if necessary ", stressed.

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