in January 2019 regarding Montenegro's Freemansonry ties. Rio admitted to perceiving Paulo Mota Pinto's reference and replied: "When I am talking about secret, obscure, little transparent interests, I am referring clearly to Freemasonry." He further went on saying that he "senses" that the Freemasons "are everywhere and trying to condition many things", and that he has "no doubt about that". Rio clarified that if he denied such influences he would be a "hypocrite" and that he is the only one with enough courage to criticize the Freemasons' influence. Honours Grand-Cross of the Order of Prince Henry, Portugal (1 March 2006) Grand-Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, Hungary (10 December 2003) First Class of the Order of the White Star, Estonia (20 February 2006) Grand-Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, Norway (25 September 2009) Grand-Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, Holy See (3 September 2010) Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, Poland (16 July 2012) Electoral history PSD leadership election, 2018 |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|% |- |bgcolor=orange| | align=left | Rui Rio | align=right | 22,728 | align=right | 54.2 |- |bgcolor=orange| | align=left | Pedro Santana Lopes | align=right | 19,244 | align=right | 45.8 |- | colspan=2 align=left | Blank/Invalid ballots | align=right | 683 | align=right | – |- |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout | align=right | 42,655 | align=right | 60.34 |- | colspan="4" align=left|Source: Official results |} PSD leadership election, 2020 |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" rowspan=2 colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px"|1st round ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px"|2nd round |- ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|% ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|% |- |bgcolor=orange| | align=left | Rui Rio | align=right | 15,546 | align=right | 49.0 | align=right | 17,157 | align=right | 53.2 |- |bgcolor=orange| | align=left | Luís Montenegro | align=right | 13,137 | align=right | 41.4 | align=right | 15,086 | align=right | 46.8 |- |bgcolor=orange| | align=left | Miguel Pinto Luz | align=right | 3,030 | align=right | 9.6 |colspan="2"| |- | colspan=2 align=left | Blank/Invalid ballots | align=right | 369 | align=right | – | align=right | 341 | align=right | – |- |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout | align=right | 32,082 | align=right