Promises it will be “shortest message yet”
Portugal’s president Marcelo has announced that he will deliver his customary message on the eve of general elections at 1 pm on Saturday, promising that it will be the ‘shortest’ of his terms in office, ‘in line’ with previous messages.
“On the day of reflection, on the eve of the vote, tomorrow (Saturday), I will deliver the shortest message of all those I have given during my terms of office, precisely in the same vein,” the soon-to-be outgoing head of state told journalists at the president’s official residence, Belém Palace in Lisbon.
Marcelo added that his message will be broadcast ‘earlier’ than usual “to allow for a slightly longer period of reflection.”
Later, he will travel to Rome to attend Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass on Sunday morning at the Vatican.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has already made seven messages on the eve of local, legislative and European elections.
The first, before the 2017 local elections, was the shortest, lasting less than three minutes. Most were around four minutes long. The longest was on the eve of the previous early legislative elections, held on 10 March 2024, lasting nearly seven and a half minutes.
Three weeks ago, after dissolving parliament for the third time and calling early legislative elections for May 18, the president was asked about possible conditions for the formation of the next government and argued that it was not his place to intervene at that time.
In this context, he stated: “What should happen is that the President should not be a factor of noise and disruption, but wait until, perhaps, on the day of reflection, on the eve of the elections, to look at the campaign, look at what has happened and then be able to go further or not.”
Last year, in his message on the eve of the legislative elections, the head of state considered that it was urgent to “accelerate the recovery of the economy,” that “certainty and predictability” were needed, and pointed to the 50th anniversary of the 25 April revolution as a milestone: “A half-century cycle of our history is closing, another is opening, with new challenges, new demands, new ambitions.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added that times were “really very difficult” and that the vote “is the final word”, concluding: “For all these reasons, and because this is a time to breathe new life, in stability and security, into our freedom, our equality and our democracy, I appeal to you to vote”.
Those elections resulted in the formation of a PSD/CDS-PP minority coalition government led by Luís Montenegro, which ended eight years of government by the Socialists (PS).
The PSD/CDS-PP executive was brought down in parliament less than a year later, in March this year, when the motion of confidence it presented was rejected during a political crisis that arose because of a family business owned by the prime minister.
Lusa
