Former Portuguese Minister of Infrastructure Pedro Nuno Santos will replace António Costa as secretary general of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) after winning internal elections with 62% of the militants’ vote.According to preliminary results.
Santos will become the new socialist leader this Saturday, defeating his two rivals, Minister of Internal Affairs José Luís Carneiro (36% votes) and Daniel Adrião (1%), as announced by the organization’s national secretary Pedro do Carmo. At the party headquarters in Lisbon.
Minutes before the results were announced, Costa sent a text message to militants congratulating his successor. “At the moment of handover, I congratulate our comrade Pedro Nuno Santos, to whom I wish the greatest personal and political happiness,” the acting prime minister and by now general secretary of the party wrote in a message to the militants. Had access to EFE.
46-year-old Santos will be the socialists’ candidate for prime minister Following legislative elections on March 10, Costa resigned as head of Government after being investigated for alleged irregularities in lithium and hydrogen dealings.
The elected general secretary has been the visible face of the far left wing of the party for years and has long been seen as one of Costa’s ‘possible dolphins’. Under him, she was Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of Infrastructure, but resigned from this second post a year ago due to irregular compensation by state airline TAP to an executive. In addition, he led negotiations with left-wing parties that resulted in a parliamentary agreement called ‘geringonça’ in 2015, which gave Costa access to the Government. During the Socialist primary campaign he defended a proposal based on the following promises: strengthening the welfare state, freeing civil servants from frozen severance, improving wages and offering more affordable housing. Santos will be welcomed by Costa at the match center this Sunday.
Nearly 60,000 socialist militants They were called to vote in internal elections organized by the PS this Friday and Saturday. Ahead of the March elections, the new leader will officially launch the political party’s campaign at the Congress, which will be held between January 5-7.
António Costa had been leader of the PS since 2014 and became prime minister a year later, a position he has held for three consecutive terms since then. The PS currently governs in Portugal with a simple majority.
vast majority
Santos promised to leave no one behind and He sought a large majority in parliamentary elections to guarantee the country’s stability., without wanting to give hints about possible deals to manage. “We want to build a Portugal where everyone has a place, where no one is invisible or left behind,” he said in a long speech at the party headquarters in Lisbon early Sunday morning.
Santos, who will replace Costa at the helm of the PS, noted all the work carried out by the current acting prime minister during the eight years of government and stated that he intends to continue this because there is still “a lot to do”. To do this, he wants a “vast majority” of socialists in the legislative elections on 10 March to guarantee “stability” in Portugal, and does not want to foresee possible agreements in the future if other political forces are necessary for power. “We will work to achieve a great outcome and then try to find solutions to governance based on the parliamentary structure,” he said.
“I didn’t talk about any ‘geringonça’ today,” he insisted when asked by journalists; journalists “wisdom”, to which he assured that in the election campaign he would trust his predecessor and benefit from his “intelligence”, “experience”.
The new socialist leader focused his speech on “all of Portugal”, the main idea of his candidacy, leaving remarks addressed to young people, the elderly and women, among others. He also appealed to companies in favor of public, universal healthcare, which the state should “partner” with rather than “replace” and which tends to be free: “We want to save the NHS,” he said.
Commitment to the Welfare State will need to be reconciled with “correct public accounts” and a reduction in debt levels, but he has declared that he does not want to “cut salaries, pensions or spending in the name of reducing public debt.” Santos also said Portugal wants to be the center of the European Union (EU) but argued that the bloc remains “critical” because it “serves the citizens”.