“No stress”, says PPM leader Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira
In the hurly burly of last night’s ‘swearing in ceremony’ of Portugal’s new government reports seemed to have missed that one of the key partners of AD (standing for the Democratic Alliance of PSD/ CDS-PP/ PPM and several independents) was missing.
PPM (the often forgotten Popular Monarchist Party – the party that ‘owned’ the rights to the banner ‘Aliança Democrática’ adopted by the centre-right for the last elections) was so forgotten that it did not even receive an invite.
While notable absences last night were the party leaders of Portugal’s left wing parties, television reports appeared to miss PPM’s lack of representation.
“I wasn’t invited. They must have forgotten. Protocol must have forgotten, but no stress”, Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira told Rádio Renascença today. “There’s no problem. I’m not worried in the slightest, I’m more worried about the country…”
The PPM leader said that he simply hopes Luís Montenegro “does what he promised during the electoral campaign”.
So far, the first day of the new government has seen Montenegro act on his guarantee to do away with the ‘pseudo-sophisticated’ government logo brought in by PS Socialists as a way of distancing itself from Portugal’s colonial past.
Gone is the ‘fried egg in the middle of the flag of Italy’, and back is the old standard, depicting castles and Portugal’s historical references and identity.
