There was no date for early elections, not even a decision to hold them, and the parties were already defining strategies and leadership while the president of Portugal Rebelo de Sousamet for four hours with the Council of State and its 17 members. The socialists were, yesterday, the only ones who did not want to go to elections, but from within the party they were preparing for it. Finally, at 9:00 p.m., the president dissolved the Assembly and called the polls. The elections will be on March 10.
Costa tried to avoid elections and even proposed some names to replace him. “I opt for the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic and the calling of elections on March 10, 2024,” Rebelo de Sousa concluded.
In the Socialist Party of Portugal, in power since 2015, the best positioned candidate He is the current Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, although there has also been speculation with José Luis Carneiro, Minister of the Interior. Ana Catarina Mendes, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, has also been sounding out her group, but it seems that she will not continue with the idea due to the strength of Nuno Santos.
Another of the parties, the so-called PAN (People, Animals, Nature) opts to organize primaries before presenting a candidate by hand. Luis Montenegro, the leader of the opposition for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was also betting on the elections “to be able to overcome everything that happened.” The coordinator of the National Strategic Council of the PSD, Pedro Duarte, assured yesterday that the party is already “very advanced” in the electoral program and that it is now necessary to “reschedule the calendar” for March 10.
Almost 70% of Portuguese voters they want early elections after the abrupt resignation of the socialist prime minister, a survey published yesterday showed while the Portuguese media published that the resigned prime minister António Costa himself was also the subject of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office and not only his close circle. Costa has denied having “acted wrongly.”