Albuquerque acuses Jardim of rigging the last leadership elections

Miguel Albuquerque, reacting to Jardim's machinations to remove him from the leadership elections yesterday stated:

"The bolshevik fetish of punishing the right to opinion and the situation of personal and political persecution which is lived today within the PSD-M is not acceptable in a democratic party and regime". (Though apparently it was acceptable when the victims were not party members) He considers the disciplinary process moved against him "a cowardly expedient used by the current leader to cheat in the next internal elections, as happenedalready in the previous ones, to his benefit". (Albquerque does not seem to mind Jardim cheating in non-party elections though).

The former Euro-MP and also candidate to the PSD-M leadership, Sérgio Marques, who has also been smeared by Jardim in the Jornal, has threatened to withdraw his own candidature, should Jardim bar Albuquerque's candidature for leadership.