The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stated that the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, has "rural behaviors" and that the former head of Government, António Costa, is "slow because he is oriental". The statements were made on Tuesday during a dinner with foreign journalists, according to Correio Braziliense. 

"You can't imagine how difficult it is for me to adapt to a new prime minister", admitted Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the aforementioned dinner at the hotel in Lisbon.

“He is a person who comes from a deep, urban-rural country, with rural behaviors. He is very curious, difficult to understand, precisely because of that. Now, he is completely independent, he is not easily influenced”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa about the prime minister who took office on April 2.

In turn, the head of State also assessed Montenegro's predecessor and assured that “António Costa was slow, because he is oriental". "Montenegro is not oriental, but he is slow, he has the time of the rural country, although urbanized. He reminds me of the old PSD (Social Democratic Party), which was like that. The PS (Socialist Party) was Lisbon, greater Lisbon, the metropolitan areas, and the PSD was the rest of the country, especially the North and the Center-North”, compared the President of the Republic.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also revealed that he is surprised by Luís Montenegro every day "because he is imaginative and has a logic of reasoning like that of a traditional country”. Despite considering that it is "stimulating", Marcelo stressed that Montenegro "gives him a lot of work".

The head of State also commented on the choice of Sebastião Bugalho to be the top candidate for the Democratic Alliance (AD) in the European elections. "It was totally improvised, a secret until the end”, he said. "He [Montenegro] formed a Government in an unthinkable way. He only started inviting the ministers on the morning of the day he handed me the list, a risk. And it was so secret that none of them knew about the other. They only met on the day of the inauguration”, revealed Marcelo.

“He is a great speaker, but he is an old-fashioned politician, he is not a politician in the style of former Prime Minister António Costa", compared Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. 

The President of the Republic  also anticipated that Montenegro "will be a politician of silences" and will often use "the surprise effect".

"He will be a politician of silences. We haven't had that since General Eanes, the management of silence. The surprise effect", also commented the President of the Republic.

[News updated at 5:56 pm]

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