In the presidential elections with the highest abstention since the 25th of April, held at the most serious moment of the spread of the covid-19 in Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa submitted himself to the vote as "the most responsible of the State and, to that extent, of the pandemic management , as he highlighted in his victory speech, made at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he was a student and professor.

The 72-year-old retired professor, who ran for office as head of state, formally supported by PSD and CDS-PP, was re-elected with 2,533,799 votes, while the results are still to be obtained in three stations.

Unlike his predecessors Aníbal Cavaco Silva and Jorge Sampaio, who lost votes in their respective re-elections in 2011 and 2001, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa outperformed the 2,413,956 he had obtained in 2016, corresponding to 52% of the total votes cast.

This result was achieved in elections in which the PS, in the Government, chose not to declare support for any candidate, but approved a motion in which it makes a "positive assessment" of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's first term, despite the fact that there is a socialist in the race, the diplomat and former MEP Ana Gomes.

The record for voting and percentage in presidential elections was achieved by Mário Soares in his re-election in 1991: 3,459,521 votes, corresponding to 70.35% of the total votes cast.

Questioned on Sunday night, outside his home, in Cascais, if he was frustrated by not reaching these values, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reiterated that the founder of the PS "is unrepeatable in Portuguese democracy" and stressed that Soares "had the support of two biggest parties, one of which was worth 50% at the time, the PSD ", when he re-applied.

At the end of Sunday's electoral night, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, he affirmed "having the notion that the Portuguese, when reinforcing their vote, want more and better, they want more and better in proximity, in convergence, in stability , in building bridges, in demand, in social justice, and more urgently in pandemic management ".

"I understood that sign and I will learn the lessons from it," he added.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who led the PSD from 1996 to 1999 and was a political commentator on television for 15 years, took over as head of the state on March 9 of that year, succeeding Aníbal Cavaco Silva.