The list of candidates for the European Elections, which will take place on June 9, was practically closed on Monday. The surprise of the night came from the Democratic Alliance (AD), which presented the journalist and television commentator Sebastião Bugalho as the top of the list.

The name of Bugalho, 28, emerged after several days of rumors that pointed to the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, as a possible candidate. However, several PSD/Porto militants and mayors demonstrated against the intention and, on Monday night, it was confirmed that the mayor declined the invitation to join the second place on the AD list.

Sebastião Bugalho, "a talented young man, a young man that the country knows"

The PSD president, Luís Montenegro, justified his choice in Bugalho because he is a "talented young man" that "the country knows", arguing that the journalist "will make a difference in the next European Elections", considering him "even controversial, who affronts, is disruptive, stimulates confrontation with democratic respect". "

"He is an example of what we want: That it is worth being in Portugal, fighting for Portugal and going to Europe to defend the interests and colors of Portugal", said Montenegro, in the opening speech of the National Council, open to journalists. "It is worth betting on the future, Sebastião Bugalho is with all honor, with great conviction, the candidate that I have to present to you and I am convinced that will make a difference in the next European elections", he said, without, however, commenting on the information that Rui Moreira could lead the AD list.

The PSD secretary-general, Hugo Soares, said that Sebastião Bugalho was the "single choice" and "the only invitation" made by Montenegro. Asked if Rui Moreira was or was not invited as number two and if he was never planned as the top of the list, the social democrat said that "the country has already gotten used to it" and the media "has to get used to" the way the PSD leadership makes choices for lists or for members of the Government

"Who chooses the names is not the media, it is the national leadership, with total reservation", he said.

Also the outgoing president of the Government of Madeira (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, considered that Sebastião Bugalho is a "media name, a name that enters the youth and a name known in the country", but that still surprised him "in a certain way" for being the chosen one to lead the list.

Pedro Nuno Santos without comments

Questioned about the choice of AD, the leader of the Socialist Party (PS), Pedro Nuno Santos, refused to comment on the lists of his opponents. "We are focused on our list, on our commitment to Europe and on our candidates. We will always make a positive, combative and assertive campaign. We have the best list, the best candidates and by far the best top of the list", he defended, at the end of the meeting of the National Political Commission of the PS.

The socialist deputy Isabel Moreira reacted only to the statements of Luís Montenegro, considering it to be "a clean populist justification".

Ora aqui está uma justificação populista limpinha. https://t.co/Yb5ER1o24a

— Isabel Moreira (@IsabelLMMoreira) April 22, 2024

"Good choice", "new dimension of the mixórdia" and "ethical problems"

Catarina Martins, former coordinator of the Left Bloc and also the party's top of the list for the European Elections, said, in the program Linhas Vermelhas of SIC Notícias, that Sebastião Bugalho "will not bring the experience of political activity itself", but, for the PSD, "it was considered a way to dispute the space of Chega and the Liberal Initiative", since "he has had a discourse of normalization of Che