TC rejects PAN resource and maintains election of invalid Inês Sousa Real

Na judgment dated Tuesday, day 08, authored by judge Joaquim Pedro Cardoso da Costa, the plenary of the TC denies the appeal of the PAN, which had been presented in mid-July, confirming the nullity of the last election of the national bodies.

The question is the election of the national organs of the party by “a limited set of structures” and by “a statutoryly incompetent structure”, which, according to the judges of the Ratton Palace, calls into question the legitimacy of the election.

“...the legal validity of the legitimation chain that leads the members of the Congress and the Congress to the national bodies would thus be irremediably unharmed”, reads in the judgment to which the Lusa agency had access.

When he announced the appeal of the first judgment of the TC, which invalidated the election of national bodies, the party of Inês Sousa Real said “respecting the decisions of democratic institutions” and reaffirmed its “compromise with the legality, transparency and participation of all affiliates and all affiliates”, although considering the decision of the Ratton Palace disproportionate and therefore resorting to the court’s plenary.

“[The PAN] considers disproportionate the consequence determined by the Constitutional Court, taking into account the concrete circumstances of the case, the time elapsed until the decision and the fact that three previous decisions of the Court itself did not give suspensive effect to the holding of the Congress or to the taking up of the national party bodies,” he said.

The TC declared illegal part of the regulation of the last PAN Congress and, as a result, invalidated the last election of the party's leadership, in which Inês de Sousa Real was re-elected spokesman.

The initial decision of the TC is contained in a ruling of the Constitutional Court dated 13 July and made following a request for a challenge by the PAN militant Carolina Pia to the election of the members of the internal organs of the party that took place at the X Congress of the PAN, held on December 20, 2025, in Coimbra.

In this document, the TC clarifies that it is not for it to “determine the holding of a new Congress, nor condemn the party to the practice of concrete acts”, considering that it is up to “the competent party bodies to draw the appropriate consequences of this decision and thereby restore the legality”.

After the first judgment, the Transform to Grow movement, of internal opposition to the current leadership of the PAN, asked for the resignation of the party's spokesman, Inês de Sousa Real, and defended the holding of a new Congress with internal elections.

The Transformar para Crescimento movement is led by Carolina Pia, author of the challenge request that originated from this TC judgment, which led the only opposing list in the last elections to the party's leadership and who was absent from this congress in protest, considering that the "democratic guarantees" were not guaranteed for the execution of the work.