Presidential candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo has accused Portugal’s state-run news agency Lusa of publishing “a false story” about what motivated his decision to run for president.
In a statement released this Monday, Gouveia e Melo’s campaign said a Lusa article titled “Presidenciais: Gouveia e Melo reveals it was Marcelo’s attempt to stop him that led to his candidacy” was “false and unacceptably lacking in rigor,” claiming the piece distorted remarks made in the book “Gouveia e Melo – As Razões” (The Reasons).
“Nowhere in the interview does Gouveia e Melo state that President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, or any statement made by him, was the motivation for his candidacy,” the note said, pointing to pages 123 to 125 of the book as proof.
The campaign added that “because in politics and journalism not everything can be allowed,” it was requesting an official clarification.
However, Lusa’s editorial board firmly rejected the accusation, issuing a response in which it “rejects and repudiates” any claim that the report was false or manipulated.
According to the agency, its article was based directly on the content of the book, published by Porto Editora. Lusa stated that, in the book, the former Navy chief explicitly mentions that it was an Expresso newspaper article from October 2024 that prompted his decision to run for president.
“It was that article that made me define my course. When I read it, I was furious,” Gouveia e Melo says in the book (page 124), referring to a story suggesting that President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa wanted to reappoint him as Navy Chief to dissuade him from entering the presidential race. Lusa said its report accurately reflected those statements.
In his campaign’s version of events, however, Gouveia e Melo’s motivation came from a sense of frustration with the state of national defence policy, not personal intervention from Marcelo.
“The decision to run was driven mainly by the will to continue serving Portugal actively, at a time of political instability and international uncertainty,” the campaign said, adding that Gouveia e Melo had concluded that “the president and the government were not truly interested in defence matters.”
