‘Professor Marcelo’: Portugal’s TV pundit turned president wins another term
LISBON: Portugal’s centre-right president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, won a second term on Sunday in an election marked by record abstention as the country battles a crippling third wave of coronavirus contagion.
The 72-year-old former leader of the Social Democratic Party, known for his warm persona and habit of taking selfies with supporters, won 61% of votes, above his 52% win in 2016.
Still, 60% of voters abstained - the highest figure in Portuguese history - in part because 1.1 million voters from abroad were added to the electoral register for the first time, but also due to hundreds of thousands of people in quarantine.
The president holds a largely ceremonial role but can veto certain laws and decree states of emergency, a power Rebelo de Sousa deployed often during the pandemic, taking parliament’s lead.
“The most urgent of tasks is to combat the pandemic. This is my priority, in total solidarity with parliament and government,” Rebelo de Sousa said in his victory speech.
The president, known as “Professor Marcelo” to his fans, shot to fame as a TV pundit and is always ready to be photographed with his admirers for a “Marselfie”.
He knows how to work the camera - photos of the head of state wearing Bermuda shorts in a supermarket queue went viral last May, and he won praise when he threw himself into the sea to help two young girls after their kayak overturned in August.
Starting in the early 2000s, he made his debut as a political analyst on TV, delivering cutting commentary on politics, books and sport to a viewership that quickly grew.
“People love Marcelo because he is entertaining,” said biographer Vitor Matos ahead of Sunday’s poll in which the conservative, 72, fended off challenges from the Socialists and a new far-right party.
Born in Lisbon in 1948, the former law professor comes from a family of political elites and grew up during Portugal’s repressive Salazar regime. His father, a doctor, was minister and colonial governor under authoritarian ruler Marcelo Caetano.
Rebelo de Sousa entered politics after that regime fell in 1974, and participated in the founding of the Social Democratic Party, which he ran from 1996 to 1999.
In his re-election victory speech, he pledged to make the fight against the coronavirus his “first priority”.
Rebelo de Sousa himself returned an “asymptomatic” positive test earlier this month, and went into isolation in the presidential palace in Lisbon.
In the 2016 polls that brought him to power, Rebelo de Sousa picked up support from one international celebrity: fellow countryman and former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, who backed him in a video on Youtube. “I know the man and the politician. We need a charismatic winner,” said the former Real Madrid and Inter Milan coach.