“First you have to think you are a candidate for Portugal,” says Maria Luis

Future commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque today asked for support for the Portuguese candidate for the European institution, accusing the previous government of not providing her with political support for the supervisory position in 2021.

Maria Luis Albuquerque was the featured speaker today at the final dinner conference of PSD’s Summer University, a political training initiative for young people that she is participating in for the fourth time.

It was the first public intervention by the former ruler since Prime Minister Luiz Montenegro announced that Portugal would nominate her as EU commissioner, a choice that was criticized across the left, including by several Socialist figures who linked it to the former ruler’s austerity period and the “troika”.

“If there is one thing our country needs to commit itself to, it is to support the Portuguese people in taking a more prominent place in European institutions (…) We must first consider who is the candidate for Portugal and then whether it is the candidate for the European Union. Whether it comes from the government or not, first of all, it is the candidate from Portugal”, Maria Luis Albuquerque defended herself today.

In this regard, he cited his own example, in 2021, he ran for the post of Chairman of the European Markets Regulator, but after a long selection process, only three candidates were left and he was ultimately defeated.

“An Italian, a German and a Portuguese. The deadlock lasted for more than six months because of minority opposition in Italy and Germany. In such cases, the solution is often to go for a third candidate. For this you need political support, which I don’t have,” he said, in a veiled criticism of the former Socialist executive led by future European Council President Antonio Costa.

When a summer university “student” asked her if she had any preference for a future position in the European Commission, she responded with an affirmative “I do, but I won’t share”.

Some participants praised María Luís Albuquerque for her performance in the government led by Pedro Paços Coelho from 2011-2015, and the former ruler left words of praise.

“I want to say that this country recognized Pedro Paços Coelho: we won the 2015 elections”, he responded to loud applause from the audience.

The former ruler also believed that the “harshest and most unpopular” but “most necessary for recovery” measures during the Troika period were taken before he became chancellor in 2013.

“2012 was the ‘annus horribilis,'” he admitted.