Almost ten hours of recordings, questions asked in the comfort of a room, in the hustle and bustle of fairs, at service stations across the country, many answers: there were months of conversation between journalist Valentina Marcelino, deputy director of DN and Gouveia e Melo. The result is the book The Reasonswhich has just been published by Porto Editora.
The launch was held in Lisbon at the Sociedade de Geografia, with the main hall full of people. Gouveia e Melo and Valentina Marcelo answered questions from the work’s editor, Henrique Pinto Mesquita, but Valentina also asked more questions, in addition to telling behind the scenes of The Reasons.
It was a conversation about democracy, trajectory, behind-the-scenes current affairs, with pauses for applause, like when the presidential candidate said that “does not want Portugal to ever become a dictatorship again” and that “As long as I’m alive and can fight, I’ll do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t happen”he stated about the visit he made to the Peniche fort, where prisoners of the dictatorship were held. Among these prisoners was Valentina Marcelino’s father.
The journalist also explained the reason for accepting the challenge of writing the book, knowing that Gouveia e Melo would be a presidential candidate. “I hesitated a lot because of the elections. The last thing I wanted was to be glued to any candidacy, because independence is something that I value very much as a journalist“, he began by saying.
But the main reason was a need that journalists naturally have: ask questions, at a time when interviews are increasingly shorter. “I had a lot of questions to ask and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Also because I was a new political actor and there was a need to get to know you”, he reported.
The deputy director assesses that the result of the book is “a lot of content and information”, with answers about her values and trajectory. He said that he prepared the questions based on the topics that people need to know, such as health, education and defense. “The conversation flowed naturally, the admiral really likes to talk”, he summarized.
The admiral responded with laughter. “At sea we only have two things, eat and talk”. And if he was at sea for so many decades, spending 31 days in a submarine, the editor questioned whether this was more difficult or the presidential campaign. “These are different challenges”, he highlighted.
Henrique Pinto Mesquita also asked questions sent by readers, through a question box opened by the publisher. One of them was from a young couple who say they are undertaking, “trying hard”, they can’t even leave their parents’ house and have their own house and are “without hope” in Portugal.
The candidate highlighted that it is a difficult answer and regretted that Portugal is on this path. “It is not possible for a young 35-year-old couple to not be able to have a home, this even has implications for the birth rate”, he highlighted. But he concluded that there needs to be an alternative, which “needs to materialize in the two governance blocs” that Portugal has.
“There are two groups in Portugal that can govern and govern well. What I can say is that I am not going to build politics for 8 am and for television”, he stated, highlighting that he believes that Portugal can grow and get out of the “stagnation it has been in for 20 years”.
The last question was from the journalist, who asked when the next interview would be. “In March, in Belém or at my house.”
Check out images from DN photojournalist Paulo Spranger