Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was re-elected for a second term as President of the Republic on January 24 and saw his result reinforced by 9% compared to the results obtained in the presidential elections of January 2016. He was only superseded in this by Mário Soares, who was re-elected President of the Republic with 70.3% of the votes in 1991. But Marcelo achieved another unprecedented feat: he was the most voted president in each and every municipality in the country.

In his winning speech, Marcelo made it clear, however, that he does not see this second term “a blank cheque” and chose the fight against the pandemic as his absolute priority. “It is mine, yours and our first mission: first, to contain and alleviate the pandemic, so that we can move on and do what we absolutely have to do”, e.g. “rebuild”, he said in his victory speech on election night. With a mobilizing speech, Marcelo also engaged in some political repositioning, suggesting that he will have a second, more interventionist mandate, especially as regards management of the pandemic.

“The Portuguese want more and better when it comes to proximity, convergence, stability, building bridges, accountability, social justice and managing the pandemic”, he said and stated: “I realised this and I will be able to learn the necessary lessons.”

With 60.70% of the votes, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was re-elected President of the Republic, followed by Ana Gomes with 12, 97%, André Ventura with 11.9%, João Ferreira from the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) with 4.3%, Marisa Matias from the Left-wing Block (BE) with 3.9%, Tiago Mayan from Liberal Initiative with 3.2% and Vitorino Silva with 2.9%.

Ana Gomes, the only candidate in the socialist political field, failed to ensure that there would be a second round of elections and, in her speech where she acknowledged this, she pointed a finger at the PS, accusing it of having failed to establish its presence in these presidential elections. “I deeply regret my party’s failure to establish its presence in these elections,” she said, referring to the Socialist Party.

But the big loser of the Presidential elections was André Ventura, leader of Chega. Ventura missed his self-imposed goal of securing second place, ahead of candidate Ana Gomes. And on election night he acknowledged this failure and announced that he would resign from his position and call for new elections for the Chega party leadership.

The BE candidate and the PCP candidate were also well below the thresholds they had established for themselves.

When affections took over Belém

In 2015, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa presented his candidacy for President of the Republic as the social-democratic and centre-right candidate and a person of social-Christian background in the town of Celorico de Basto. Five years later, at the height of a pandemic, the announcement of his new candidacy took place as late as possible and in a pastry cafe near the Belém Palace. In his campaign, he made a point of debating with all the candidates, but he gave up the airtime he was entitled to and did not present a website or a manifesto, claiming that the Portuguese know him well enough.

In his speech announcing he would reapply Marcelo invoked “the duty of conscience”, ensuring that he does not turn his back in the most difficult moments, a clear reference to the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, and presented himself as a factor of political stability .

The affections and the close relationship he established with the Portuguese were the main mark left by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa during his first term in Belém. A particularly emblematic moment of his style and of his way of exercising the presidential magistrate role was there during the Fires in Pedrógão Grande, in June 2017, and during the fires that occurred months later in October. Marcelo immediately took to the affected areas, hugging and comforting those who lost everything. And after the October fires, the calls for the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Constança Urbano de Sousa materialised thanks to him.

As regards the famous case of weapons theft in Tancos army premises, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had to face one of the biggest tests of his first term. The President of the Republic demanded that all responsibilities should be ascertained at all costs, either as regards the weapons theft or as regards the farce surrounding the missing military material that would be found later.

But it was not all thorns. Marcelo welcomed the Portuguese football team who won the Euro Cup 2016 at the Belém Palace. And the same with Salvador Sobral and Luísa Sobral who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017.

The almost exemplary cohabitation between Belém and S. Bento in the last five years is also one of the main milestones that remains in Marcelo’s mandate and which culminated in the support to his re-candidacy expressed by Prime Minister, António Costa during his visit to the Autoeuropa car factory.

The challenges of the second term

Right on the electoral night, Marcelo placed a new theme on his ‘to do’ list for the next 5 years: revision of the electoral laws, promising to “do everything in his power to influence” legislators so they might consider postal or mail vote, stating that the failure to do so in presidential elections is particularly detrimental to those living abroad.

But he has a number of challenges ahead in his new mandate that starts on March 9.

The fight against the pandemic was immediately assumed by Marcelo as his main mission in Belém in the coming years. “It all starts in the fight against the pandemic,” he said in his victory speech on election night, stating that this was the main answer expressed in the January 24 elections. “If the pandemic lasts longer and makes deeper inroads, everything else we want so much will go worse, will last longer and will become much more difficult to face. For this very reason, since everything is urgent in a society in crisis, in Europe and in most parts of the world now facing a deep crisis, the most urgent thing now is to fight  the pandemic ”, he reinforced.

His first major and most immediate test, however, is related to Euthanasia. The law that decriminalizes and regulates assisted death was passed in general terms on February 2020, but reached Belém only recently. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had eight days to decide whether he would submit the diploma to the Constitutional Court, or 20 days to enact or veto it. The President of the Republic decided to send the Euthanasia Law to the Constitutional Court.

The fight against inequality is another objective pointed out by Marcelo for the coming years. In his Christmas address in 2019, the Head of State had already chosen reduction of inequalities as “the strategic objective of the decade” and he repeated the call now in a pandemic context: “It is not enough to say that no one can be left behind, we need to reduce the inequalities that have worsened in the meantime. Those who lag behind have to be able to come closer to those who are in a privileged position”. And he went even further and established  the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April revolution – which will be celebrated in 2024 – as a symbolic date and goal for a more developed and fair country.

With a minority government, and after António Costa’s disagreements with the left, unpredictability lurks. Ensuring governance and remaining the guarantor of stability and avoiding political crises, will be one of the biggest challenges for Marcelo’s next years at the Belém Palace.

The management of the financial bazooka that Portugal will receive from the European Union, like other Member States, dealing with the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic and implementation of European funds is another of Marcelo’s priority dossiers at the start of this second term. And in this regard, the head of state has already advised, “feet on the ground” and left the warning that “the pandemic will cost the full amount, or even more of the whole amount of the bazooka, if take out the multi-annual framework”.

The President, who was once the leader of the Social Democratic Party and established a presence in television commentary, a life lived teaching law, in politics and in the media, now has five more challenging years ahead than the first five in Belém.