Sampaio da Nóvoa does not break presidential taboos

Time passes, the center-left, which doesn't want António José Seguro as a presidential candidate, despairs, but António Sampaio da Nóvoa hasn't yet clarified his position on a Belém candidacy. He's keeping to himself, refusing to say if or when he's considering expressing his thoughts or confirming whether he's even considering something.
The former rector of the University of Lisbon, who ran in the 2016 presidential election (and came in second, behind Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa), seems only concerned with ensuring that he was the one to launch himself into that field. This Wednesday, when asked by reporters whether he acknowledged harboring any expectations, he assured: "I haven't made any statement about it, I haven't harbored any expectations."
But are you considering it? Do you intend to discuss the matter at some point? What do you think of the support that has emerged for your potential candidacy? To all this, Sampaio da Nóvoa responded without answering: "I'm here to talk only about education and my academic work."
He had just given a presentation on education at the International Conference on Education hosted by Lusófona University, and he didn't even bother to discuss that topic. The same was true when he was asked about the support already emerging from the Socialist Party (PS), the Left Bloc (BE), and even about statements by Augusto Santos Silva, who withdrew from the presidential race to support a center-left independent candidacy: "I didn't come to make any statement about anything else."
Sampaio da Nóvoa put the left on alert when, in December of last year, upon his retirement, he said that the country "does not need warlike spirits" or "anyone to put the country in order"—among the lines was the name of Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a potential presidential candidate. He also promised: "I will never give up my citizenship." Those who know him best perceived this statement as an expression of will that, until now, had not been so clearly detected.
Meanwhile, with the departure of António Vitorino and Augusto Santos Silva, his name has once again become a topic of interest on the left, where former PS leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues has already declared his support, as has José António Vieira da Silva. In the Left Bloc, Joana Mortágua has also done the same. But Nóvoa continues to keep everything on hold.
observador