In a speech at a rally in Lisbon, António Costa said he had heard “extraordinary criticisms” of his approach, that he spent the campaign debating figures, when campaigns should be done by distributing promises, according to his critics.
“Well they’re very wrong,” he said. “That’s not how to do election campaigns [and] I’ve never campaigned that way. Perhaps it would have been easier to do as [the governing coalition] do, not proposing anything for the future, presenting accounts... There are others who like that style better, but I like my way of doing politics.”
Costa was meanwhile attacked by the smaller Left Bloc for not being left-wing enough. At an event in Aveiro, party spokeswoman Catarina Martins said that “what would be really good is if the PS said something from the left.”
The PS leader had earlier called on parties on the left to attack the governing coalition and not waste “energy” sniping at him.