Why is Portugal’s government so quiet about defence policies, queries opposition
PS leader Pedro Nuno Santos has reacted to the fact that Portugal was missing from the video conference of EU leaders set up to commemorate the third anniversary of the invasion by Russia of Ukraine on Monday, saying that “in recent times, when it comes to defence policy, we have had no information from the prime minister”.
The PM has carved himself a very ‘non-reactive’ niche generally when it comes to questions – justifying his position with the fact that he simply doesn’t have time to react to everything as he is ‘working for the good of the country’.
But on occasions as significant as the 3rd anniversary of a war raging on Europe’s borders, opponents, if not colleagues, expected him at least to have been present at the video conference of leaders. He had, apparently, said he would be there – but when it came down to it, he was not – and that has given critics huge margin to register their disappointment.
“Is Portugal becoming hesitant over Ukraine at this decisive moment in the western world”, queries Iniciativa Liberal. “Can’t the prime minister rise to the occasion?”
Considering this is a year of municipal elections, all parties are keen to ‘be noticed/ be popular’, and thus the PM’s reticence is even more perplexing.
Pedro Nuno Santos told journalists that if he was prime minister he would have been in Kyiv (physically, not remotely) on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion.
“Unequivocally, of course I would be in Kyiv (…) for the simple reason that this is one of the most important issues occupying the European Union at the moment, and that interests us all,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Lisbon.
But the truth is that PS Socialists are being very much ‘left out of the information loop’ regarding foreign policy. The party “doesn’t have all the information about discussions that are taking place at a European level”, said Santos, and has had no recent contact on this score even with the prime minister.
Pedro Nuno Santos reiterated the importance of the Ukrainian conflict for his party, adding that he is available to “talk about the issue with the prime minister” as long as the government feels that the socialists’ contribution could be useful.
