Let Luís kill the PSD. It's for a good cause: the PS

Consensus in sight in the 'centrão'. The PS returning to the centre. The PS as the unblocker of the AD government. The PS of José Luís Carneiro not only as an interlocutor but more precisely as Montenegro's interlocutor…

Looking at these summary sentences that describe the new doctrine in force in Largo do Rato, it becomes clear that the PS has entered survival mode and is trying to gain time. So far, nothing new or very relevant, as this new positioning of the PS, when viewed from the past, is hypocritical (where were the centrists of the PS when, in 2015, Costa pretended to negotiate with Passos Coelho while he was setting up the contraption? Or when he mistreated Rui Rio, who believed so much in the centrist movement?). But these declarations of love for the centre by the socialists are above all a trap when viewed from the future. Why a trap? Because what the PS is proposing to the PSD is that it risk itself to rescue the PS. This is what is called “asking too much”.

Yes, what the PS wants (and actually needs) is for Montenegro to ignore the right-wing majority that resulted from the May 2025 elections and rescue the PS by reviving the same center that the PS killed in 2015. In practice, the centrist proposal now formulated by some socialists is nothing more than the wishful thinking of some (Carniro's supporters) and the tactics of others, especially the left wing of the PS. If the PS believes it is centrist, it should fight for the center, recover it, defend it and not transfer to Montenegro the burden of rescuing the PS to the center. I have nothing against the centrists of the PS, quite the opposite, but as is more than obvious, this centrist phase of the PS will end the very second that the radicals who are now silent consider that the conditions are now in place to remove Carneiro and quickly and strongly take the PS to the left. What will happen to the PSD at that moment? It will be left alone defending what the PS said the day before was the truth.

Do you remember when, in 2011, the PS left the country economically bankrupt? Six months later, the socialists demonstrated against the memorandum they had negotiated. And to this day, the burden of the cuts and the anger of pensioners falls on Passos Coelho. In 2025, the issue of bailouts will arise again, but in a much more complex way. The criminal immigration policy implemented by António Costa's governments, together with the institutionalization of the red lines policy in relation to Chega, with which the socialists hoped to suffocate the PSD, destroyed the country's balance and, ironically enough, devastated the PS. Yes, there has also been a bankruptcy, but this time there is no troika, nor clean exits. There are choices to be made. And one of them, perhaps the first, involves this question: should Montenegro continue to ignore Chega and take advantage of the PS's willingness to make the agreements that the country needs? I believe it is tempting to answer yes to this question, but this option could prove to be a disaster for the PSD, which runs the risk of seeing Chega benefit from this kind of central bloc. But that’s not all. In the name of what is now called stability, we all risk ending up with a much more radicalized and brutalized country, because the decline of the PSD as a result of its proximity to the PS will quickly leave Portugal at the mercy of Chega and, don’t laugh!, a front between a PS that will have consigned centrism to the grave of history and that, hand in hand with the BE, will promote the radicalization of politics and the degradation of the lives of all of us. The “Let Luís work” campaign may well undergo a change of lyrics and soon sound like this: “Let Luís kill the PSD. Come on! It’s for a good cause: the PS!”