PM has pledged to see government through to end of mandate
With the PS absolute majority government seemingly floundering from one crisis to another, Portugal’s press is back today with the ‘old chestnut’ of António Costa potentially bailing out early, and leaving the country for a top job in Brussels.
Many referred to his recent ‘off-piste’ football jolly in Budapest as clear indication that he is up for the challenge.
But there is that constant ‘inconvenient detail’: he ‘promised’ President Marcelo that he would see this executive through to the end (which should be in 2026, although many have already called for parliament’s dissolution over the last few turbulent months).
Today, various outlets are back wondering how this promise could be manipulated into oblivion.
Both Expresso and Público make much of how Mr Costa is seen in Brussels as “a star of the Socialists”, responsible for having “saved the European left at a time when parties of the extreme right have been entering Member States in force”.
There are even those who see the PM as a contender for High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (the job currently performed by Josep Borrell), says SIC, stressing that the pact he made in the early days with the far left was seen “with good eyes” in Brussels – even if it has left the far left in tatters.
According to Público, the PM has been at the head of Portugal’s Socialist Party for nine years and ‘even if he has insisted he will see his mandate through to the end, Brussels could convince him to embrace his European dream‘.
And where would this leave Portugal? This will be the question for the next weeks and months, as PS Socialists’ popularity in the polls is far from ‘absolute’ – and the only contender tipped to replace Mr Costa is widely seen as not cut from the same cloth.
As respected commentator Luís Marques Mendes has said time and again, he CAN see Pedro Nuno Santos returning to government, and taking over as secretary general of the PS when Mr Costa finally goes – but that doesn’t mean he will be a future prime minister.
Marques Mendes also suggested this entire story could be a case of perverse PR by the Socialists.
On Monday that was looking possible, as António Costa vehemently rejected any thoughts of embracing a European dream. He stressed that he will not be accepting “any mission that puts the stability of the country at risk”.
