The former socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates is back in the nation's political life and has made it clear why coalition leaders were happy that he remained behind bars in the lead up to the general election.
Target number one for the skilled orator was the President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, whose mishandling of the election aftermath has not been his finest performance.
Sócrates was speaking on Saturday at a conference in Vila Velha de Ródão in Castelo Branco where he spent the first hour discussing the limits of justice and the rule of law, taking as an example his own 41 week incarceration.
The wily one kept the last 20 minutes for a savage attack on President Cavaco Silva, noting that "there is an article in the Constitution that says no one can be deprived of their rights, regardless of their beliefs."
He was alluding to the fact that last Thursday the President did not nominate a left of centre coalition government because Portugal belongs to NATO and the euro, two memberships that the left wing is opposed to.
"I am in favour of NATO but am much more in favour of a country where one can be against NATO. I am in favour of Europe but I am much more in favour of a country where one can be against Europe," said Sócrates.
Without naming Cavaco Silva, Sócrates argued that the government should be made up by a party or coalition "which has the majority in parliament" and considered that Cavaco Silva disrespected and has ostracised the Left Bloc and the Communist Party.
"It's as if to say: yes, you have the right to elect MPs, but someone only can rule if they represent higher national interests. I thought democracy was in the national interest and would be upheld in conjunction with the different interpretations of national interest that exist in parliament.
That's how democracies work. But it seems that there is a higher national interest that only a few, very gifted, superior ones, are able to interpret. "
As punchy as ever, the former head of the socialist government who resigned in 2011 just after signing up for a Troika bailout and skipping off to Paris, said that even he is in favour "of a country where there are people who are against the Constitution, but does not feel comfortable living in a country where people decide not to comply with the Constitution - especially by those sworn to enforce the Constitution."
Sócrates criticised further Cavaco Silva’s attitude of nominating the coalition to form the next government, even though there is no guarantee of stability, preferring a caretaker government to a left wing government.
