The Socialist Party (PS) of Portugal proclaimed Pedro Nuno Santos as new general secretary this Sunday after winning the internal elections on Saturday. Santos received the baton from António Costa in a symbolic act marked by a spirit of unity and continuity in which the still acting prime minister promised “not to overshadow anyone.” The meeting between the two, at the party headquarters in Lisbon, lasted almost two hours.
Santos, currently Minister of Infrastructure, was declared the winner of the PS elections on Saturday night with 62% of the votes of the militants. “There is continuity, not a rupture, but there will also be change and there has to be innovation in how we organize ourselves and how we intervene politically. "It is inevitable when there is a change of leadership in a party," he said in statements to the press after his meeting with António Costa, who resigned last month after being investigated by the Supreme Court in a case of alleged irregularities between members of his government in businesses related to lithium mining and green hydrogen production.
António Costa insisted that, after the internal elections, the party is “all united to guarantee that after March 10 there will be continuity, with new energy and momentum of what the PS Government has been.”
After Costa's resignation, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of elections for March 10, giving the socialists sufficient time to reorganize. Pedro Nuno Santos will, therefore, be the candidate of the PS, which currently governs with an absolute majority. All the polls agree, however, that revalidating it is something that seems far away. All political formations are already in pre-campaign, while the PS will hold its national congress on January 5, 6 and 7 and will then finish electing the party's leadership bodies.
The new leader, 46 years old, had long been the visible face of the party's leftmost wing and was considered one of António Costa's possible dolphins. Santos stressed this Sunday that it will be necessary to "improve salaries, pensions, public services" and diversify the economy, while maintaining "healthy public finances."
