The President of the Republic assured, on Wednesday afternoon, that he does not regret having said that the current Prime Minister has "rural behavior" and considers that these words cannot "in any way" be considered offensive.

"On the contrary. They were [statements] very explanatory, so that foreign journalists could understand, on the one hand, that there is continuity and to understand gestures and decisions, which appear as unexpected, but are imaginative," he justified about the statements he made at a dinner on Tuesday with foreign journalists, where he distinguished Luís Montenegro from António Costa.

"It is a different style, very different from the style of the previous Prime Minister. It is a style that is surprising, that will surprise and that is why I said that there is an unpredictable side to it that has to do with this imagination - it is true", he explained, at the end of a lecture-debate with young people about April 25, at the Quartel do Carmo, in Lisbon.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa insisted, to journalists, that the Partido Social Democrata (PSD) has "rural characteristics" and Luís Montenegro, "despite being much younger, has a lot to do with these roots" of the party, different from the reality "strictly metropolitan and urban that has always defined the Socialist Party".

Therefore, Marcelo insists that he did not compare the two politicians: "They are not comparisons, they are different styles. And it is completely different a President who lives with a minister for 8 and a half or 9 years, whom he has known since he was 19 years old, and this start of living with someone whom the President has known for many years, but who has a different style".

"You can see, at the start of the Government, how the styles are different," he pointed out.

Also confronted with the fact that he had said that he felt comfortable with António Costa as Prime Minister until 2026, Marcelo explained that he "only hears dissolution [of Parliament] because there was a resignation first".

"If the Prime Minister had not left - as Prime Minister and as leader of the PS - there would not have been what happened, which is the change of a duo that I expected to last until 2026 and there would not have been a dissolution, insofar as the change in the leadership of the party, especially with the government of an independent, is a completely different panorama," he pointed out.

The Head of State is still convinced that the fact that Luís Montenegro is "the Prime Minister of silence" will not be a cause for obstacles, since silence "is a way of managing what dialogue is," especially when you are at the start of a new government.

The President of the Republic also refused to have said that the Attorney General of the Republic was "Machiavellian", stressing that he was "very careful" in what he said at that meeting with foreign journalists.

On the other hand, asked if he spoke with the Mayor of Porto and told him that he was going to have a very important week, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa began by answering that he had not been with Rui Moreira last week.

"I spoke in the past about the possibility of him eventually - he had not made a decision - having a position like that, I thought it was an important position," he added, in an allusion to a possible candidacy for the European elections, without specifying when they had that conversation.

Relationship with his son? "I don't talk, period"

The Head of State also confirmed that he has cut off relations with his son, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, following the case of the Brazilian twins. Marcelo says that he does not speak to his son not only about that subject, but "in general". "I don't talk, period," he assured.

"I feel a lot of personal hurt, but I was not the determinant of that hurt", he added.

The estrangement between the two had also been revealed to foreign journalists on Tuesday, and occurred due to the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins treated at the Santa Maria Hospital.

[News updated at 6:41 pm]

Read also: Marcelo says Montenegro has "rural behavior" and Costa is "slow" (Portuguese version)