Former prime minister José Sócrates has said he will be voting for ex-Naval admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo in the presidential elections in January.
To not put too fine a point on it, support from José Sócrates is not something many people would turn cartwheels over considering he is on trial for alleged institutional corruption and cronyism, and has managed to play the judicial system such a merry dance over the last decade that any crimes still standing against him may well fall before the trial is over.
Certainly, Henrique Gouveia e Melo has not reacted with much enthusiasm.
“I don’t have anything to do with this”, he told the journalist who quizzed him on Mr Sócrates’ statement.
José Sócrates’ reasoning for backing the former Chief of Staff of the Navy is “to guarantee that the extreme right doesn’t get to power (…) I don’t like voting for military men”, he told a television debate, “but I will vote for him because I think he is the one that offers the best guarantees that he will never accept the extreme right in power”.
In a way, Mr Sócrates was also taking a swipe at the other ‘leading candidate’ (Luís Marques Mendes) – and to be fair he did say he did not know if his vote of approval would help the former admiral’s campaign, which does appear to have been losing traction over the last few weeks.
Asked about the former prime minister’s support in one of the many televised debates being held in the run-up to the presidential elections, Gouveia e Melo appeared to become ‘irritated with the moderator’, writes SIC, saying he felt the question was “provocative.
“He can vote for whoever he likes, I have nothing to do with this”, he said, adding that he didn’t even feel the question had a place in the debate, either.
As SIC explains, Henrique Gouveia e Melo is the only candidate for the next president who has not come from a political background. He has described himself as “truly independent”, of the centre ground, and not identifying with any of the extremes (left or right).
“Even so”, says SIC, “he will not refuse the vote of any Portuguese, be they of the extreme right or the extreme left”.
Polling on this ‘race’ for the next incumbent of Belém Palace is starting to heat up, with many surveys coming back showing the electorate favouring Marques Mendes (centre right), followed closely behind by André Ventura (extreme right), and Gouveia e Melo. who was itially dubbed “potentially unbeatable”.
source material: SIC Notícias
