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1. During the electoral campaign dozens of statements and news items concerning intercepts were issued, linking these to the name of the President of the Republic. However, there isn’t a statement or written notice from the President referring to intercepts or any other similar occurrence.

I challenge anyone to check what I have just said.

And all this when it is well known that the Presidency of the Republic is a single person body and that only the President of the Republic speaks on its behalf or otherwise the Heads of his Civil or Military Cabinets.

2. Why all that manipulation?

Exceptionally, because circumstances so demand, I will provide you with my personal interpretation of the facts.

Others may think differently. But the Portuguese have the right to know what the President of the Republic thinks and continues thinking.

During the month of August, in my house in the Algarve, whilst I dedicated most of my time analysing the bills I had taken with me for the purpose of enacting, I was confronted by declarations made by relevant members of the Governmental party demanding that the President interrupt his holiday to issue a statement concerning the participation of members of his civil cabinet in the preparation of the programme of the (Social Democrat Party) PSD, (which, in line with the information I had received, was untrue).

And I am not aware that during the tenure of office of the presidents which have preceded me, the members of their civil cabinets had been limited in their civic liberties, including contacts with the political parties to which they belonged.

I considered such statements to be extremely serious, a type of ultimatum addressed to the President of the Republic.

3. My personal view of these statements was the following (normally I would not disclose my personal view of politicians’ statements but, in the present circumstances, I am forced to make an exception).

In my opinion, the intention was to attain two objectives with those statements:

First: Bring the President into the party political dispute, attaching him to the PSD, although everyone knows that I am specifically rigorous in my independence from all political parties.

Second: Divert the attentions of the electoral debate from the issues which effectively concern the People.

This was my reading and, in this sense, I addressed a statement during a visit carried out to the village of Querença, in the county of Loulé, on 28 August.

4. I interpreted much of what was stated or written later involving my name as aiming to consolidate those two objectives.

Including the queries that any citizen may place as to how those politicians were aware of the movements of members of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic.

Including even the queries attributed to a member of my Civil Cabinet, about which I did not have prior knowledge and about which I have many doubts as to the exact terms in which these were placed.

But what was the criminal act committed by anyone personally querying the reasons underlying another’s political statements?

I repeat that, in my personal opinion, these were all attempts to consolidate the already referred objectives to attach the President to the PSD and divert attention.

5. And my reading of the publication in a daily newspaper of a 17 month old e-mail, exchanged between reporters of another daily newspaper, concerning a consultant in the Prime Minister’s cabinet who was present during a visit which I carried out in Madeira, in April 2008.

I had no knowledge whatsoever of the contents of that e-mail or even of its existence and, personally, I have great doubts as to the veracity of the statements it contained.

I am not acquainted with the Prime Minister’s consultant referred to, I do not know to whom he spoke, I do not know what he viewed or overheard during my visit to Madeira and whether or not he reported on it to anybody.

Concerning myself he would have little to report on which was not common knowledge. And for this reason I did not attach any relevance to his presence when I was told he had accompanied my visit to Madeira.

6. What I first asked myself when I was advised of the publication of the e-mail was the following: “why is it published at this time, one week before the election, when 17 months have already gone past”?

I immediately linked the publication of the e-mail to the objectives aimed at by the statements made in mid-August.

And, personally, I must confess that I am unable to understand the nature of the criminal act of a citizen, even if a member of the staff of the President’s civil cabinet, to have feelings of mistrust or of any other type with respect to other people’s attitudes.

7. But the published e-mail left doubts within public opinion as to a basic rule in force in the Presidency of the Republic – no one is authorized to speak on behalf of the President of the Republic, except the heads of his Civil or Military Cabinet – having been broken. Although I had been assured that such had not happened, I could not allow that doubt to remain. .

For this reason, and for this reason only, I made some changes in my Civil Cabinet.

8. The second query I placed myself concerning the publication of the e-mail was: “is it possible that any external agent may access my computer and become acquainted with my e-mails? Is the confidential information contained in the computers of the Presidency of the Republic sufficiently protected?rdquo;

In order to clarify this issue I heard today several bodies with responsibilities in security systems. I became aware that exposure is possible and requested that the possibility of reducing it should be the object of research.

9. A President of the Republic has, at times, to face very complex issues, and to assist to serious manipulation, but he must be able to resist, in the name of what he considers are the best national interests. Even if such should bring personal grievances. For me, Portugal comes first.

The President of the Republic does not give in to pressure neither allows being influenced, whatever the source.

For this reason I kept silent during the electoral campaign.

Now that the electoral dispute is over, and because I consider that the circumstances have gone beyond the limits of what is tolerable or decent, I hope the Portuguese will understand that I have been forced to share with you, publicly, the interpretation I made of an issue which flooded the media during several days, without my ever having referred to it, directly or indirectly.

Everyone is aware that the Presidency of the Republic is a single person body and that, concerning its positions, only the President may speak.

One last word I want to address the Portuguese: you may be certain that, however great are the difficulties, I shall be here to defend Portugal’s best interests.