"Those who are doing local politics, we let them do local politics. Those who are doing national and European politics and have that responsibility, obviously do not worry about these petty political issues, although they interest me a lot as a Porto citizen, [...] but I sincerely tell you that they are not relevant at all", declared the first vice-president of the PSD National Political Commission.

"It is local politics, the only thing missing now was to condition a European list by local or municipal politics", added the also head of Portuguese diplomacy, speaking to the Portuguese press on his debut at the EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

Guaranteeing that he does not know the lists that will be released tonight, after having withdrawn from the process for having previously been the PSD's top candidate for the European elections three times, Paulo Rangel stressed: "We cannot confuse local politics - which I know well because in this case it is from Porto - with national politics and much less with European politics".

"I had a position regarding the process of making this list [...] of not getting involved in this process because, precisely, for having been the top candidate three times, therefore, I thought that I should, since I was not a candidate now, not be involved in this process, but sincerely [...] I have immense confidence in the PSD and CDS bodies and I am sure that we will have a frankly good list, capable of winning the elections", stressed the party's vice-president.

"That is my absolute confidence and I will be totally in solidarity with the decisions that the PSD and CDS bodies will make today, although really, sincerely, I do not know anything strictly", added Paulo Rangel.

PSD and CDS-PP will hold a meeting of the National Councils of the two parties today to vote on the candidates for the European elections and approve an amendment to the name of the pre-electoral coalition AD, with which they will run for the elections.

The top candidate of the AD is not yet officially known - with the name of the current Mayor of Porto Rui Moreira being pointed out as the most likely by several media outlets - but it is already known that only one of the PSD's elected members in 2019 will be able to repeat as a candidate for MEP: Lídia Pereira, recently elected vice-president of the European People's Party, and who was the "number two" four years ago, in a bet by the then PSD president, Rui Rio.

Today, PSD Porto members and mayors, including Vladimiro Feliz, who was the social-democratic candidate for the Porto City Council, demonstrated today against the national leadership's intention to indicate Rui Moreira as the top candidate for the European elections.

The signatories consider it to be "a betrayal of the people of Porto, members, supporters and mayors elected by the PSD", stating that they have no doubts that "it will leave deep marks on the trust that the people of Porto have in the PSD".

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