The Portuguese socialist candidate Pedro Nuno Santos, who declared in a debate last Monday that he would give way to a minority government of the conservative Democratic Alliance (AD) if he did not win the elections, warned this Wednesday that he would not do so if his opponent does not promise the same.
“No one can demand or force the PS (Socialist Party) to do something that the PSD (Social Democratic Party, leader of the Democratic Alliance) is not prepared to do,” Santos said in statements to reporters in Lisbon.
The socialist stressed that the PSD had shown itself unwilling to allow a minority government to advance if the PS won next year’s elections. March 10, Therefore, he feels “no obligation” to guarantee the same if the Conservatives win the elections.
“The value of reciprocity is very relevant” Santos emphasized that the country needs stability and only socialists can provide it.
On the right, “this stability is not guaranteed” because there is no understanding between the different parties and because of the AD program a “real tax adventure”he defended.
Santos had assured during a debate with the leader of the AD, Luís Montenegro, that if the PS does not win in the elections, he will not present a “rejection motion”, nor will he make feasible a rejection motion by an executive in the minority of the government Conservatives.
Montenegro limited itself to saying that if it does not get an absolute majority, it would try to govern as a minority “in negotiations with all opposition parties, starting with the Socialist Party,” without specifying whether it would do the same otherwise .
“This is a question that needs to be clarified,” emphasized the socialist on Wednesday. Santos, António Costa’s successor in the PS, and Montenegro, president of the PSD and leader of the alliance that unites Christian Democrats and Monarchists, are the main candidates for prime minister in the March 10 elections.