Nuno Morais Sarmento spoke of a terminal state at the 41st PSD Congress, held on November 25, 2023, less than four months before the AD’s victory in the legislative elections on March 10, 2024, ending an eight-year period of socialist governance.
All the social democratic activists who applauded him at the Municipal Sports Complex of the City of Almada were able to observe the weakened state of the former minister and vice-president of the party, who died this Saturday, March 7, at the age of 65, but Morais Sarmento’s reference had nothing to do with his state of health.
Morais Sarmento spoke of the “terminal state of credibility and decency that we have unfortunately reached, dragging the country with it”, referring to António Costa’s governance. At issue were the shock waves of Operation Influencerwhich led to the resignation of the prime minister, and current president of the European Council, with the former vice-president of the PSD assuming responsibility for creating the wave of enthusiasm that would culminate in the surprise arrival of the former prime minister and president of the Republic, Cavaco Silvaat the end of the 41st PSD Congress.
But during the afternoon it was Morais Sarmento, one of the PSD’s historical figures mobilized for what everyone believed to be a turning point, who took the lead in a symbolic moment. Having just arrived at the pulpit, for an intervention that lasted 15 minutes, he called Montenegro to him. The man who until a few weeks ago expected to try to remain leader of the opposition until 2026, given the PS’s absolute majority, stood up from the congress table and received a gift.
Morais Sarmento offered him a pin that had belonged to Francisco Sá Carneiro, and that the founder of the then PPD had used in the party’s first electoral victoryexplaining that he had been endorsed by Eleanor, a first-time supporter whose age did not allow her to travel there. “Also with him we will have an electoral victory on March 10th”, he prophesied.
After handing over the talisman, Morais Sarmento left “three brief notes” about the months that the PSD would have ahead. “A lot will happen and it could distract us”, he warned, considering “it is particularly important that we keep a cool head and always remember that our focus is the elections and our opponent is the PS”.
He mentioned the internal dispute between Pedro Nuno Santos and José Luís Carneiro, commenting on the former, who would be elected general secretary of the PS, that “one thing is contraption by necessity, and quite another is contraption by choice”. About António Costa, he said he would be “making a theater in three acts”speaking of “a criminal case against him that does not exist” and a “possibility of being accused of being accused that is not on the table”, demanding that the investigation be completed before the elections, so that the now President of the European Council can be cleared of any suspicion.
To the end, he kept the idea that it was necessary to “put Portugal’s interests ahead of the party’s own interests”making it necessary to “not risk” a new socialist victory, for which it would be necessary to have more parties on the side. “I don’t see that there is any impediment to it being possible to promote, with the CDS and the Liberal Initiative, a common base that allows us to add to what, consistently and laboriously, our leader has done”, he saidarguing that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”.
Even without the liberals, the AD would end up being a reality, with CDS, PPM and independents joining the PSD in the difficult victory in the 2024 legislative elections. “Just as Durão Barroso was the man who would never be prime minister and was; just as Carlos Moedas was the man who would never be mayor of Lisbon and is; Luís Montenegro, who they say is impossible to win in the next elections, will be the winner”, he concludedexciting the activists who saw the end of a long crossing of the opposition desert approaching.
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