Portugal: Elections in May if government confidence motion rejected – president

Portugal’s president has promised to act “as quickly as possible” if the motion of confidence that the government will present to parliament is rejected. “If it is rejected, I will immediately convene the parties, if possible for the following day, and the Council of State for two days later“, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Viseu on Wednesday evening, promising “a timetable for intervention as soon as possible“, while allowing for the possibility of early parliamentary elections in May.

Marcelo said, however, that he would first like to hear from the parties, namely those that support the coalition government (PSD and CDS-PP), to confirm that they intend to stand in the elections, if they are called, with the same leaders.

After recalling that on Friday the Cabinet will define the terms of the motion of confidence, the head of state said that the debate could take place in parliament next Wednesday.

The country’s president never referred directly to the dissolution of parliament and the consequent calling of early parliamentary elections, but after promising to act swiftly in the face of the likely defeat of the motion of confidence, he pointed to May as a possible date for the country to go to the polls again.

Marcelo assured that if the government loses the confidence of parliament, he will act to “try to minimise the costs in terms of effects and maximise the speed and rapidity in dealing with the situation”.

Despite the international crisis that the world is facing, especially after the inauguration of the new US administration, the head of state pointed out that the state budget has been approved and that the timetable does not clash with the timetable for drawing up the accounts for 2026.

“The first possible date is somewhere between 11 and 18 May,” he said, in the event of parliamentary elections.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters that he wants to hear from the two parties that support the government – PSD and CDS/PP – if they “want to keep the same leadership and present the same leadership to any election” that may take place.

Regarding the prime minister’s clarifications on his family business, the country’s president refused to comment on whether or not Luís Montenegro had cleared up all doubts about the process, saying that this would be “taking a position on a matter that is under parliamentary scrutiny and in which there are completely opposing positions”.

Political processes, he said, “are complicated, because it was all very fast” and, in his opinion, “the least complicated thing about all this was the fact that it was very swift”, because if it had been “very slow it would have been a truly even more perplexing process for the Portuguese” since “they have no idea about these mechanisms”.

“I have this feeling today: time has become a fundamental component in politics. Time. Normally it was ideas, figures, principles, then strategy, tactics and now it’s time,” he said.

That is, he continued, “the anticipation of time, the weighing up of time, thinking “is this better now or better later”, in some way now'”, exemplifying that this “happened a lot” when voting on budgets.

“I’ve seen that a lot over the years. Winding, difficult and complicated processes and some turned out well, others turned out badly at the end, precisely because of the time factor,” he said.