Rebelo de Sousa cannot force the opposition leader to define his position against Chega

The leader of the main opposition party (center-right PSD), Luis Montenegro, this Tuesday he met for the first time with the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The meeting took place after several earlier exchanges of statements in which Montenegro refuted Rebelo de Sousa’s insolence towards the opposition. “The government has no alternative”the president repeated several times to explain why he ruled out calling early elections.

Although he did not make it so clear in public, another of Rebelo de Sousa’s big concerns was a possible pact PSD could make with Chega, a far-right party, to gain access to the government. It was expected that Montenegro, ambiguous in its current position, would express itself more clearly, but continues in the same tone. Justifying himself with what he is “party strategy” He preferred not to disclose the conversation about the extreme right. Of course, he insisted on the leadership of his party among the conservatives, which Rebelo de Sousa also questioned. In this sense, the president hopes that the PSD will consolidate and that it can gain an advantage in the polls for Chega, which is currently the only force capitalizing on the fall of the socialists.

Namely, the leader of Chega, André Ventura, will go to Belém Palace this Wednesday as a representative of the third political formation. He is expected to ask Rebelo de Sousa to clarify whether he is considering a government solution that includes his party.

After the meeting on Tuesday, Montenegro said that their conversation should remain at the “discretion of institutional relations”, and concentrated most of its speech in criticizing the Government because it does not “feel Portuguese”. In broad terms, he said that he referred to “the political, economic and social situation in the country and some issues that are of interest to the lives of citizens”. In addition, he pressured Rebelo de Sousa not to allow the European elections to be held on June 9, a date that the PSD considers inappropriate because it is on the eve of a holiday.