New leader unlikely to be chosen before results of municipal elections late summer
Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, the man under whose watch Portugal’s PS party has lost roughly a million votes over the last two years, will relinquish his post as secretary-general in four days’ time.
The moment – the meeting of the PS’ National Commission – will see PS president Carlos César “temporarily assume the socialist leadership”, until internal elections are concluded.
This solution is expected to stay in place for months: pundits have been saying on national television that, from what they have gleaned, there will be no announcement regarding the party’s leadership before the results of the municipal elections later this summer.
What media sources are calling the “hecatomb of the PS” (meaning ‘massive loss of life’) is being laid at the feet of Pedro Nuno Santos when it comes to responsibility.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã stresses the party lost “a million votes” under Pedro Nuno Santos’ leadership – and he leaves the scene with less than half the number of Socialist MPs in parliament than when he started. Legacies could hardly get any worse. Indeed, the paper says that the latest parliamentary mix means that PS Socialists may not even have enough representation in parliament to be part of any future constitutional changes.
For now, the National Commission will meet at an as yet unspecified location on Saturday, go over the dismal election results and, reportedly, decide matters of procedure, including “electoral calendars and regulations”.
This will be a moment for the PS to ‘take a deep breath’, and work out how to repair the damage. Moderates of the party are insisting that dialogue and cooperation are the only way forwards. Without it, former Minister of the Presidency under António Costa Mariana Vieira Silva has considered that the popularity of CHEGA will only continue in rapid ascendancy. ND
