After a hot week between Belém and São Bento, with mutual messages and tension regarding the More Housing package, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and António Costa were side by side, in Santo Domingo, and refused to let the relationship be shaken, guaranteeing that the political coexistence is good and recommended. In other words, in domestic politics as well as in foreign politics, good winds are blowing.
“I can speak for myself, [a crítica do PR ao programa para a Habitação] It didn’t affect our relationship at all.. If even when we do not have coinciding points of view in internal politics, the personal relationship is good, in terms of foreign policy, when the positions are absolutely coincident, the relationship is even better”, said this Saturday the prime minister, in response to journalists, at the joint press conference of the 28th Ibero-American Summit.
Despite the 29º C that are registered in the capital of the Dominican Republic, the head of the Government and the President of the Republic have cooled down and, at least, abroad they speak with “one voice”. Admitting that they do not necessarily share the “same position” on certain matters and that “political differences on concrete cases” is “something absolutely normal”, Costa assured that the climate between the two is absolutely healthy.
“Now, we do not have a presidential regime where the President of the Republic is in charge, nor do we have a parliamentary regime where the President of the Republic does not have a political intervention“, shot.
Speaking of a “sophisticated” Portuguese political system, where the President of the Republic is directly elected by the citizens and has a “political function of his own”, while the Government responds politically to Parliament and “follows its programme”, the Prime Minister made a positive balance of the relationship between São Bento and Belém. “I believe that in these almost 50 years of democracy there must not have been a moment when the relations between Government and PR were so fluid, so smooth, so normal, I would even say with progressive friendship“, he said.
Confronted with the Mais Habitação package, the head of government recalled that it is still in public debate, with a view to considering suggestions and receiving contributions for a “stronger” support for families. That is, it does not rule out withdrawing from coercive leasing, after strong criticism of the measure. “There are hundreds of contributions, namely from the PR, but also others, several institutional, written opinions from the National Association of Municipalities, the Lisbon Association of Owners, the Association of Tenants of Lisbon, from several municipalities”, he explained.
The PM “does not show any signs of being tired”, says Marcelo
In tune, the President also devalued the differences and even his recent consideration, in an interview with RTP and “Público”, when he accused the absolute socialist majority of being “tired” and “reheated”. ”The prime minister has an energy that is on the test, he personally shows no sign of being tired“, he said, between laughs.
And he explained that his assessment of the Government came at a time when he was listing the reasons for a “very complicated year”, with consequences for any ruler in the face of war, crisis and pandemic. External factors that forced to postpone the internal policy.
“It is not to be ignored that on fundamental issues there had to be agreement between the Government and the President, the Government itself understood that and the circumstances themselves advised it”, he also noted, giving as an example the successive declarations of States of Emergency during covid -19.
These were problems, he stressed, that had their “cost”, with the consequent “tiredness” in the sense of the “inevitable wear and tear” that this brings to the Government. “In the President too, although the President, not being an executive, does not wear out in the same way”, he also mocked, in response to Costa’s barb, who during Wednesday’s plenary session said that “in other functions we talk, we talk, but in the Executive either we do it or we don’t”. A criticism of the fact that the PR maintained that the Mais Habitação Program was “inoperable”, pointing in particular to the coercive leasing of vacant houses.
The Head of State also considered that the 28th Ibero-American Summit was a “great success” and announced that exceptionally, a new summit will be held in 2024, in Ecuador, after the pandemic. About the bilateral meetings, he revealed that the Presidents of Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador expressed their willingness to visit Portugal.