Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a military man, gained public recognition during the Covid-19 vaccination in Portugal, as coordinator of the Task Force for the vaccination plan, from February to September 2021. The positive feedback from Portuguese people led to speculation that the Admiral could win a presidential election, which may not be far from happening, at least it is what the Portuguese want. According to the poll, Henrique Gouveia e Melo was considered by 21% of the interviewed people as the best possible candidate to be President of the Republic.

Pedro Passos Coelho, former Portuguese Prime Minister, comes in second place as the most favourite candidate. The Partido Social Democrata (PSD) member had 14,7% of the votes, now that he marked presence in more public events, especially during the last legislative elections. Also from PSD, Luís Marques Mendes, a politics commentator on SIC TV channel, and former PSD leader, is for 10,6% of people the right choice to occupy the position. André Ventura, the leader of Chega comes right after with 8.8% of interviews seeing him as the right candidate, followed by Mário Centeno, former socialist Minister of Finance, and current Governor of the Bank of Portugal, with 8,3% of the votes.

Ana Gomes, TV commentator, former diplomat, and the socialist former President of the National Assembly Augusto Santos Silva, were also considered by some of the interviewed people, more specifically 7,9% and 5%, respectively.

According to the poll, 5,1% of the 818 people surveyed presented blank or invalid notes, while 18,6% still do not know who the best candidate would be.

Region by region

The poll also evaluated the regional preferences of Portuguese, with Admiral Gouveia e Melo leading in Centre and South Portugal and in the Archipelagos of Azores and Madeira. In the North of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho is the favourite possible candidate, with 21,1% of preference, while Gouveio e Melo occupies the second place, with 20,5% of votes.

André Ventura is in second place, regarding the preference for people from Lisbon and Porto metropolitan area, with 12,8% and 11,2% of the votes, respectively. Therefore, the leader of Chega is ahead of Luís Marques Mendes, without surpassing Pedro Passos Coelho and Henrique Gouveia e Melo.

In general, Portuguese from all age groups agree that Henrique Gouvia e Melo would be the best candidate for the presidential elections. However, the Admiral cannot express his will about it, due to being part of the Navy as his occupation forbids him to exercise political activity, as he already stated to the press.

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos