“They are confidential if clients do not authorize their disclosure. And I think the Portuguese have the right to know what kind of interests, and what kind of interests, were being defended during that time”he said.
The presidential candidate, supported by IL, stated that Luís Marques Mendes should apply to himself the demand he made to Luís Montenegro about Spinumviva, stressing that, at the time, Marques Mendes said “he found it useful for the Prime Minister to clarify everything and who the clients were”.
“I could apply [esse critério] himself, because the President of the Republic will have relations with other States, he will have relations with States where some companies or some interests dominate. It was important that we know exactly what happened.”these.
João Cotrim Figueiredo was speaking to journalists after speaking at a lunch at the International Club of Portugal in which he left a passionate appeal for voters, including those who listened to him, not to be influenced by the useful vote and “vote for the first choice to go to the second round” of the presidential elections.
“A country that permanently opts for the second choice will never be a first choice country. Whoever permanently opts for the second choice will never have a first choice future. We have been making calculations for too long that ‘I’m afraid of A, B and C, and I don’t vote for what I truly want’. This becomes pernicious”he defended, adding that, “a useful vote, in this election, is the most useless thing there is”, “if not counterproductive”.
In his speech, which he dedicated to the issue of reforms that he considers necessary for Portugal, Cotrim Figueiredo made a diagnosis of the country’s state, identifying flaws in matters such as national productivity, health, education, technology or justice, before arguing that they all need reforms.
“For that, we need courage, because all these things cost votes and cost some transition pain, a lot of them. We need courage and we don’t need to think only about the next election”he defended.
Asked by one of the participants about how he intends to implement these reforms if he is elected President of the Republic, since he will not have any executive power, Cotrim Figueiredo stated that he intends to motivate public opinion and ensure that “social, civic and professional movements, in some cases” have the desire to “change something, to do things and constantly come up against State structures”.
“The structures of the State are hyper fragile, with enough headbutts, they open gaps. You have to headbutt them. It hurts a little, then it goes away, it doesn’t draw blood. That’s what I think a President of the Republic can do: inspire people to do more”he said, adding that he also thinks that the head of State has an obligation to support and defend reformist Governments, not leaving them “alone with the burden of this reform”.