Speaking to journalists at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that he had already taken up this position recently, in the face of "growth in some sectors of Portuguese public opinion towards a critical view, inevitably culminating in this escalation towards dissolution".

And he reiterated: "No, don't count on me with that. Therefore, it's better, from the outset, not to count. They can count on me to have the same institutional behaviour that I had for seven years".

"The President of the Republic, faced with what seemed to many to be a chorus of criticism in relation to the governance pointing almost to dissolution, said: no, do not count on dissolution. Now, it is fundamental that the Government governs and governs well", he added.

Questioned about his relationship with the Prime Minister, António Costa, after the cases that have led to dismissals in the Government, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared himself "totally stable in institutional terms" and considered that the Portuguese know that.

"I come from the centre-right, for four years I facilitated a centre-left government supported by leftists more to the left than the centre-left. Then a new government was formed, a centre-left government with support that it was not as long-lasting as one would want from parties located on his left, and institutional stability continues with the President of the Republic", he stressed.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa assured that, in the current political framework, with an absolute majority of the PS, he will "continue by definition the position of the President of the Republic".

"That's how it is. That's how I understand it should be as President of the Republic: first, in the Portuguese system, which is neither presidential nor parliamentary, it is semi-presidential; second, in a world at war; third, with an economic, financial and resulting from the war", he explained.