Pedro Nuno Santos already in full ‘battle cry’ over government’s handling of blackout
With PS secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos – the arch rival of prime minister Luís Montenegro, focused on winning elections in three weeks’ time to wrestle Portugal back under Socialist control – already in full battle cry over what he sees as the failures of the government to adequately handle the demands of yesterday’s blackout, the televised ‘head-to-head’ due to have taken place last night between the two men has now been rescheduled.
The ‘great debate’, as it is being billed by the nation’s media, will now be taking place tomorrow night, and broadcast simultaneously on the three main channels: RTP, SIC and TVI.
These debates have not been the viewer magnets of previous years – largely because Portugal is on its third legislative elections in as many years (when ‘normally’ these contests should only come round once every four years). Many will be thinking “is that an end to them, then?” The answer is “no, it isn’t: there is still another ‘blistering debate’ scheduled, involving all eight party leaders, and starting on Sunday (May 4) at 9.30pm.
Both debates (tomorrow’s and Sunday’s) will be taking place at Nova SBE (the New School of Business and Economics) in Carcavelos. The idea behind the first is to gauge the suitability to lead of both party leaders; the idea behind the second is to kick-start the official start of the election campaign (which started unofficially quite some time ago), giving viewers an opportunity to see (yet again!) what each party stands for.
Sunday’s head-to-head is expected to last around 70 minutes.
Before this “confrontation” (the words chosen by Lusa) Pedro Nuno Santos has taken part in six televised debates, while Luís Montenegro has only appeared in three (with the leaders of PCP communists, Iniciativa Liberal and CHEGA), leaving debates with the smaller parties of Bloco de Esquerda, LIVRE and PAN to his defence minister and coalition partner Nuno Melo. This decision saw Mr Montenegro come in for a degree of flak, adding to the general assault of flak that precipitated these elections. ND
Source material: LUSA
