Costa stressed the need to find stability to apply the support from the European Union: "These are the most important elections that the country has had in recent years, a unique and extraordinary opportunity for us not to lose the opportunities that we have at our fingertips and to let neither the country falter nor to stop", he said.

Citing the previous intervention of Elvira Fortunato, professor and vice-rector of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, António Costa agreed that future generations “will never forgive us if this opportunity is wasted”.

“And whether or not to waste this opportunity is entirely up to us. Therefore, we cannot look at the coming months, or at the next elections, as if they were just another election”, he insisted.

António Costa emphasised that this moment is “politically so important, because everyone needs everyone” and that the elections “occur at a decisive moment for the country, when there is still a pandemic to fight” and in which "one cannot waste a second to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity given by the European Union to invest in more science, better health, more and better education, and in the development of the country as a whole”.

“The rejection of the State Budget for 2022 has created a very serious problem for the country”, said António Costa, recalling that funds are still yet to be allocated to various sectors, including the proposed €750 million for the National Health Service (SNS).

He said that there can be no "patching solutions", nor "interim government solutions for two years", adding that "the country really needs stability to implement these policies over the next four years".

“This is our ambition, to create conditions so that the country can have stability over the next four years, because they are four decisive years to free ourselves from the pandemic, to recover from the damage of the pandemic, to rebuild what the pandemic destroyed and, most importantly, to use the means available to us in order to take a big leap forward”, he said.