Leaders do not want to be normal

The trend is not from now but have been accentuated in strength in the last election campaigns. More than presenting themselves as extraordinary, competent, and capable leaders towards the country towards a better future, leading candidates to occupy the position of Prime Minister have made a significant effort because they present themselves as normal people who say normal days, during which normal things, have normal conversations, normal hobbies and normal loves.
People like us all, therefore. Luís is a person who likes to work and play volleyball and has already curtains in the room. Pedro is well willing, knows how to ride a motorcycle and says blunders. André lives in a modest house (more or less) and also turns around two wheels. Mariana likes to run and beer. Rui also drinks some imperials. The other Rui suffers from a condition in which he does not recognize people’s faces. Paulo has a bitch and a turtle. Inês has done fertility treatments – and so on.
The intention is to reach as many voters as possible, preferably without journalistic mediation. But it is one thing to know the human side of a politician, their beliefs and convictions, or to realize whether it acts privately the way it preaches in public. Another is to reduce a leader to fun and entertainment. Because being a prime minister, opposition leader or party leader has nothing normal-on the contrary.
From a political leader, now and throughout history, it is expected to have a set of characteristics that distinguish him from the ordinary citizen. It is expected to have and present a future vision to the country, to give hope to the population that sacrifices that may have to be made in the present will reflect on a better life in the future-and that it is also able to communicate it. It is expected to have a bulletproof integrity, to act with honesty and transparency and to establish the ethical standards on which all those who depend on it have to governing themselves. It is expected to know the world around us and be able to present a strategic thinking that helps you-and to us-to overcome complex situations. It is expected to have the ability to make decisions about pressure, resilience to resist setbacks, courage to put the country’s interests ahead of personal. It is expected to have emotional intelligence to manage teams and to adapt to new circumstances.
Deep down, it is expected-or should be expected-that leaders are extraordinary people, the best among their peers, the most prepared, intelligent, focused, with work capacity and sacrifice. It is not expected to be normal. Because if they go or do not go through it, then they are not for the position.

Unless there is some last minute surprise, late Sunday night we will be about the same situation as we met when the confidence motion was spoiled and the government fell. According to the survey that sunrise and Euronews publish this week, AD will continue to have a minority government -even though the possibility of a majority with the liberal initiative is not out of hypothesis -the PS being the second party, becomes the third parliamentary force and the extreme left to define it.
The country will continue with a sociological majority of right -wing but with permanent government instability since – starting from the principle that the ‘no no’ of Luís Montenegro is to maintain – the understanding between the two biggest parties in fundamental issues seems even more unlikely than a year ago: after a campaign in which the head of government was classified as an ethical, it will hardly be possible for Pedro Nuno Santos to negotiate Prime Minister.
This also means that the Spinumviva case will continue to wear out Luís Montenegro and the Executive, especially if the parliamentary commission of inquiry promised by Pedro Nuno Santos is facing. After two straight losses, it will not be remaining to the socialist leader another option other than the continuing attack on the government, even as a form of resistance to the antibodies they have in the socialist party itself and the knives that will begin to sharpen after the electoral night.
We will fall, to recover the expression of António Guterres, in the political swamp. With the difference that, this time, no resignation is anticipated, either from Luís Montenegro or Pedro Nuno Santos, the only way to separate the waters, allow agreements to the center in key matters and to give the country a new direction in a context of great international instability. It remains for us to continue as if nothing were until the presidential of January 2026, with municipalities in the middle, to see what Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s successor will have to say about the stability of the regime. And to understand if in leaders we have normal or extraordinary men and women.