“What will follow now is very simple, listening to the Council of State on the dissolution and once the position on the dissolution of the AR has been defined, move on to the next phase, which is the definition of the elections and this will be done between Wednesday and Thursday,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The President of the Republic explained that two State Councils will be held on Wednesday, one with the presence of Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, on the economic and financial perspectives in Europe, particularly in the euro zone, and her reflexes in Portugal, and another Council of State convened to discuss the political situation after the failure of the State Budget for 2022 in parliament.

Following the rejection of the State Budget for 2022, with votes against by the PSD, BE, PCP, CDS-PP, PEV, Chega and IL, paving the way for early legislative elections.

As for the date of the elections, which is the moment following the dissolution, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that there were different positions both with regard to political parties and with regard to other entities that intervened, although all parties agreed with the month of January.

Seven of the nine parties with parliamentary representation pointed to the date of January 16 as the most suitable for early legislative elections, including PS and PSD.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “the AR itself intends to do this, because it wants to schedule a series of laws to be voted on before formalizing the dissolution”.

"And, if that's the case, I'll announce the dissolution, and then some time passes to allow the AR in relation, for example, to certain European directives, which have limited deadlines under penalty of non-compliance, some laws that the Government considers fundamental to be approved ”, he stressed.