In a New Year’s message recorded on video, released on the PSD’s social networks, Luís Montenegro also refers to the presidential elections of January 18, stating that the party “convincingly” supports its former president Luís Marques Mendes, but stressing that “these are not party elections”.
Luís Montenegro considers that Marques Mendes “has already shown himself to be the best candidate, the best prepared for the exercise of the presidential function”.
“But then we will have a period of about three and a half years without national elections, where we can, and should, concentrate on fulfilling our program of reform and transformation of Portugal,” he adds.
In a context where the PSD/CDS-PP government does not have an absolute majority in parliament, he argues that it is necessary to act “with courage, with the capacity for political initiative, with the capacity for dialogue, with democratic humility”.
“In health, in education, in housing, in transport, in the protection of our natural heritage, in projecting Portugal in the world, we have a project that is a project of transformation, it is a project of having Portugal at the forefront,” he states.
Thinking like Cristiano Ronaldo
Luís Montenegro expresses the ambition to create “more wealth” and reiterates the idea that it is necessary to embody “that Cristiano Ronaldo mentality” of working on talent and increasing effort to achieve “new conquests.”
According to the Prime Minister, the Government wants workers to have “more income for their work effort” and wants to “guarantee the sustainability of their pensions, the appreciation of their pensions,” without “leaving anyone without the means to have a dignified and happy life.”
In this context, he reinforces that “the PSD is required to have courage, a sense of responsibility, and to take advantage of the opportunity that the Portuguese people have entrusted to us to manage the country’s destiny.”
“This is the best way for us to evoke our history, that of our founders, of Francisco Sá Carneiro, of Francisco Pinto Balsemão, who left us recently, and also all the others who served in the Government and ennobled this great party,” he argues.
Addressing the PSD members, Luís Montenegro concludes: “I’m counting on you, an excellent year in 2026. Let’s get to work.”
Regarding the year 2025, he makes “a very positive assessment,” highlighting the victories in the early legislative elections of May 18, with “conditions of governability and political stability,” and in the municipal elections of October 12, in which the PSD regained the leadership of the national associations of municipalities and parishes.