Passos Coelho's television interview

Former prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho gave his first television interview since leaving office to SIC Notícias, published on 12 October 2026, more than eight years after he stopped being prime minister. He said the PSD had an obligation to build a majority on the right with Chega and the Liberal Initiative (IL) at the start of the legislature. He criticised the PSD for not reaching a four-year agreement with both parties. Passos said he would not rule out a return to active politics if the PSD failed to obtain a satisfactory result, adding that any return would have to do something different. He also praised Chega leader André Ventura, saying he knew him well enough to see him as a person of considerable merit.

“The PSD fell into a very complicated trap, because now it is too late to go back and make a legislature-long agreement that was rejected.”

Montenegro's reply in Porto

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who also leads the PSD, responded the same day at a dinner celebrating Pedro Duarte's municipal election victory for the Porto city council. He did not name Passos Coelho or Chega, but he was answering the former prime minister's call for an alliance with them. Montenegro said the PSD should keep listening to differing views, but that the party had already chosen its course.

“I have no doubt: this PSD does not need and should not be chained to the party to its right, which today is the party with the second-largest parliamentary representation.”

Montenegro recalled that earlier this year, when a different vision was put forward as an alternative, the party was challenged to be clear. He said the PSD held an election at its congress and now has a dual commitment to voters and party members, so decisions already taken would be carried through rather than revisited month by month, quarter by quarter or half-year by half-year. He said the country wants and needs a government that governs and dialogues matter by matter with whoever is willing to compromise. He rejected governing on the basis of tantrums, whims or anyone's complexes, saying the government acts in the interest of citizens, institutions and Portuguese society.

The dispute over the PSD's direction

Passos said the PSD is in government, that its elected leader has been endorsed by voters, and that Montenegro does not need to assert himself. He added that the party should get along with other opinions, saying he always had. He accused PSD government members of wanting to imitate the strategy that gave António Costa a majority, and said everyone had been looking at their own navel for too long. He argued that a majority supporting the government's reforms should have been explored from the start in parliament.

“I am referring to the difficulty in generating a majority that supports the government's reform action, and that majority should have been explored from the start in parliament, with Chega and with the Liberal Initiative.”

Passos said the path the PSD chose prevents it from carrying out reforms. Montenegro's reply on Monday, 12 October, made clear that the government does not want to be tied to a party that does not serve the country's interests.