"I hope that there will be strong electoral participation in Madeira, as I hope there will be in the European elections", stated Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in response to journalists, as he left an initiative at the Beato Creative Hub, in Lisbon.

Confronted, afterwards, with criticism directed at him by the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, who is running again for the PSD, the Head of State assumed himself as "responsible for everything" as "regular guarantor of the system".

"And I do not omit that I had to make decisions that I did not expect, simultaneously. I dissolved three times [the Assembly of the Republic and the regional parliaments of the Azores and Madeira] in the space of two months, two of them because of crises in justice, of judicial processes, another because of a crisis that has already been overcome", he said.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that "in the Azores, the Budget has just been voted on, meaning that the crisis has been overcome with the election, there is a Government and the Government voted on the Budget that had caused the crisis".

"I hope that in Madeira the solution that comes out of the will of the Madeirans can also allow this, that the Budget that was not possible to vote on previously is quickly passed. At a national level, you already know what I hope: that there is stability and that this stability allows the Budget to be voted on for next year. Let's see if that happens", he added.

As he left the Beato Creative Hub, where he participated in the launch of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Mundu Nôbu, founded by Dino D'Santiago and Liliana Valpaços, the President of the Republic was also asked about the assessment that the Portuguese make of his performance.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that there have been opinion polls with different approval ratings, mentioning some, and commented that "this is the strength of democracy".

"In democracy there are several different polls on the same subject, and there are several different polls over time. People like it more at one moment, then at another moment they like it less. Then they like it more again and then they like it less again, or they continue to like it a lot or they continue to like it little. And that's how it is. And that's how it should be", he considered.

Next, the Head of State, who was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2021, stressed that he will no longer be going to the polls: "Sometimes this [the polls] conditions politicians, perhaps, especially when they have elections. I understand that they look at the polls and say: we are close to the elections, we are close to the elections in an autonomous region, we are going to do more of this or that depending on the elections. I have no more elections".

[News updated at 11:19 pm]

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