President: "To be Portuguese is to be universal"
In his penultimate NY's message as President, Marcelo sent messages to Montenegro, expressed concern about Trump's election and used poets Camões, Tolentino and Adília Lopes to defend immigration.
What?
In his traditional New Year’s eve message, on Wednesday, January 1, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called for “common sense” and “institutional solidarity” between the President and the Government.
He began his message with the international situation, noting noted that wars continue and that the results of the US elections dictated who can decide what kind of peace will happen, fair or unfair.
The President argued that the USA is an important ally and that the EU must do everything it can to maintain it, especially at a time when, across Europe, “strong economies continue to decline and governments of those economies are falling”.
He then moved on to the domestic situation, emphasizing that after the 50th anniversary of April 25th, celebrated in 2024, it is crucial not to repeat the past but to address the issues that democracy has “failed to resolve.”
“We do not want to lose either freedom or democracy, but a 50-year cycle has come to an end," declared the Head of State. “To invoke April is to look to the future, not to repeat the past.”
The President of the Republic pointed out that there are “deep-rooted problems” in the country—such as poverty—that democracy has not been able to solve. He stressed the need to renew the democratic system to tackle these challenges, highlighting the “universality” of the Portuguese people.
In this context, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa referenced the elections Portugal will face this year, including local government elections, to praise the people as the “supreme judge.”
He ended his message by reminding the portuguese people of the “courage” shown by the military in 1982 to return “full power” to the population, following the “victory of moderates” in November 1975 - droping another not-so-veiled jibe at 2026 Presidential elections frontrunner Admiral Gouveia e Melo.
Reactions:
PAN
The spokesperson for green party PAN, Inês Sousa Real, stated today that she hopes the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, listens to the “President’s messages” regarding the need for institutional solidarity, which she argued should also extend to parliament.
CDS
The vice-president of conservative CDS, Telmo Correia, expressed agreement today with President Marcelo’s New Year’s message, stating that in Portugal “it is essential for common sense to prevail,” which he described as a “defeat of radicalism.”
LIVRE
The parliamentary leader of ecosocialist Livre, Isabel Mendes Lopes, described the President’s New Year’s message as “very defeatist,” both internationally and nationally, adding that it “offered little hope for the next cycle.”
PCP
Communist Party leader Rui Fernandes said that the goals identified by the President regarding the fight against poverty can only be achieved with a change in policy. “More than words, I expect actions,” stated Rui Fernandes, emphasizing that despite the President’s comments on the need to tackle inequalities, “time passes, and solutions to the problems are not found.”
IL
The President of Iniciativa Liberal (IL), Rui Rocha, criticized the “significant omission” of state reform from the President's New Year's message, noting that it was also absent from the Prime Minister’s Christmas message.
BE
Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) leader Bruno Maia found it odd that the President of the Republic spoke of April 25th and the future without addressing public health, education, or housing. He also lamented that Marcelo failed to mention Palestine or “the genocide” in Gaza.
CHEGA
The president of Chega, André Ventura, stated today that the President’s New Year’s message “fell short” of expectations, as he had hoped Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa would address issues such as health or insecurity.
PS
The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), Pedro Nuno Santos, said today that he shares the concerns of the President of the Republic but argued that “there is no confidence in the current government's ability to resolve them.”
PSD
The vice-president of PSD, Carlos Coelho, noted “special alignment” between the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister’s holiday message, observing that Marcelo’s remarks were mainly directed at the opposition.
Read the message in full:
A good year to everyone, wherever you may be, is my warm and foremost wish for 2025. In the world, in Europe, in Portugal. The year 2024 set paths that will greatly determine what the year that began today will be. Globally, it showed that the two main wars continued and worsened, and economic recovery was weak, despite falling prices and interest rates.
In Europe, the June elections provided a momentary relief to certain leaders and ruling parties, but it was very short-lived because strong economies continued to decline, and governments of these economies either fell or continued their slow descent.
At the year’s end, the U.S. elections brought a return to 2016, allowing the winner to define the kind of peace they want, both in Ukraine and in the Middle East. A just, lasting peace that respects international law, humanitarian law, and therefore the dignity of people? Or an unjust, precarious peace that ignores rights and disregards people’s dignity and humanitarian conditions? In this context, they would also have to choose whether to collaborate with the European Union or distance themselves from it, with the positions of the United States influencing whether Russia and China gain more or less power.
In very simple terms: More alliance between the United States and the European Union in economy, politics, Ukraine, and the Middle East is better for Europe and worse for Russia and China. Less alliance benefits Russia and China.
In this scenario, the challenges ahead for the European Union are, first, to do everything possible to strengthen the alliance with the United States, but not to rely solely or primarily on it. To remain united, maintain alliances and allies, prepare for a complex situation in the East, build its own military strength, recover economically, address the lag in investment in knowledge and expertise where it has fallen behind the United States and Asia. And finally, to reform its weakened economic, political, and social systems. All at once. All difficult, but all indispensable for the European Union to establish itself as a global power in the world.
What about us, Portuguese people? We commemorated the 50th anniversary of April 25th. We remembered Mário Soares on the centenary of his birth. We realized that we do not want to lose either freedom or democracy. But we also understood that a 50-year cycle has come to a close. To evoke April is to look to the future, not to repeat the past.
We need less poverty. The poverty affecting two million Portuguese is a deep, structural problem that democracy has not been able to solve.
We need greater social and territorial equality, and we need even more education. Better healthcare, better housing. For this, we need to better qualify human resources, innovate more, and compete with greater productivity. To continue leading in clean energy, digital domains, and cutting-edge technology.
But we must not allow the gap to widen—the distance between the young who move forward and those who cannot, between the young who progress and those over 55, 60, 65 years old who increasingly find themselves in dead-end situations.
In short: We need an economy that grows, pays better, and increases the income of Portuguese people, thus also addressing inequalities. We need the economic and financial figures from the recent past, which have been positive and confirmed in the present, to be consolidated and enhanced.
We need the €16 billion from the PRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan) that we have to spend over the next two years in a useful manner, making us forget that we have only spent €6.3 billion over a similar, even longer period until now. In other words, we need Portugal to be better prepared to face the accelerated changes in Europe and the world.
We need common sense—the same common sense that led us to strengthen institutional solidarity and even strategic cooperation between branches of sovereignty, notably the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister—to continue. And that led us to approve the 2024 and 2025 budgets, ensuring stability, predictability, and respect. Both at home and abroad.
We need to renew our democracy and not let it grow old. Youth must play a role, as must women, in combating corruption, fostering tolerance and dialogue, and rejecting personal, domestic, family, and social violence. Political, economic, and social forces, as well as the justice system and public administration, need to turn toward the future to better serve the community.
We need to affirm the enduring relevance of Camões’ universal vision, so rightly celebrated this year. To be Portuguese is to be universal. This is central to our national identity. Cardinal Tolentino used to say, as did a great, though discreet, poet who left us recently (Adília Lopes), that she never lost or discarded anything throughout her life. We are like that, Portuguese people—we learn from everything and everyone. We do not claim to hold a monopoly on truth. And we discard nothing; we preserve it as part of our collective memory spanning centuries.
As always, in 2025, the people will be the ultimate judge of our response to so many challenges, starting with the local elections at the end of the year. Fifty years after the military movement turned revolution, the victory of moderates in November 1975, and the courage of the Captains of April in returning full power to the people in 1982 to breathe life into democracy in Portugal, I believe in the experienced and determined will of the Portuguese people. I believe in the Portuguese people. As always, I believe in Portugal.