Portuguese president hails decision to back Costa as EU Council chief

5 months ago 13

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has done “the right thing” in clarifying the government’s support for former Socialist prime minister António Costa’s possible candidacy for the presidency of the European Council, said President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, citing the outcome of the European elections as grounds.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with the Portuguese community in Geneva on Tuesday, Rebelo de Sousa was asked about the announcement on European election night that the ruling Democratic Alliance coalition and the Portuguese government would support Costa if he decided to run for the European Council presidency.

“I think he did the right thing. He waited for the elections, and once there was an electoral result that paved the way, he said what was natural: that the government supported a Portuguese and a Portuguese with the experience he has for the European Council,” he said.

The Portuguese president also recalled that he had on several occasions highlighted the European experience of the former prime minister and that such a candidacy would only “depend on his own will and the outcome of the elections”.

“The outcome of the elections seems to open the way to this hypothesis. It just depends on António Costa’s will. If that’s the case, it’s clear that it’s an advantage: he knows Europe well, he moves well in Europe, he gets on well with European leaders, and he’s a Portuguese voice. That’s important for Europe and Portugal,” he said.

Although he declined to comment on the results of the Portuguese EU elections “as is customary,” he gave a reading of the overall EU election results, believing that EU citizens voted for “continuity with changes,” which strengthens Costa’s chances of being elected to succeed Charles Michel as European Council president.

“At the European level, Europeans have voted: they have voted to keep the three dominant forces, or at least the most important ones, the three forces that were already dominant, namely the European People’s Party (EPP), the European Socialists and the Liberals,” he pointed out.

“In other words, it was a vote for continuity, with changes, but essentially for continuity, like someone who says that in a time of war, in a time of economic, financial and social crisis, it would be better to essentially maintain the European political line, with changes of course, as we have seen in several countries,” Rebelo de Sousa continued.

According to the president, the “changes” demanded by Europeans are “in the direction of economic recovery and social justice, but not changes in Europe’s position in the world, in Ukraine or in relations between the world’s great powers”.

In this context of “continuity with some changes”, the president said that António Costa has the right profile for the European Council because, in addition to his “nine years of experience in Europe”, he has always “got on very well with the European Commission and with the European Parliament”.

(André Campos – edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho | Lusa.pt)