"I didn’t come here to bother the president, I just came to wish him a speedy recovery and offer him a spy novel," António Costa told reporters who asked him if he had spoken to the president about the political party funding bill.

The prime minister visited the president at Lisbon’s Curry Cabral hospital accompanied by the health minister, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, and said he had found the president in a good mood and recovering well.

The president was operated on an umbilical hernia on Wednesday, is recovering well after his operation and is expected to be discharged on Sunday.