A greeting to everyone present, to our allies from PEV and ID and to the many who have no party affiliation and find their space for construction and unity in the CDU.

On June 9, the Portuguese people will once again be called to the polls to elect 21 MPs to a European Parliament, which actually operates in Brussels/Strasbourg, but the impacts of whose decisions are reflected in the everyday lives of those who live and work here.

If it is done there, it is here that it is paid, and that is also at stake in these elections.

Wages, pensions, access to healthcare, education and housing, the prices of food, energy, medicines, what the country can or cannot produce, options regarding companies and strategic sectors.

And it's not worth coming with half-talks, because in these matters what is required is clarity.

Either you are on the side of economic groups and multinationals, or, like the CDU, you defend the interests of the workers and the people.

Either you continue to subject the country to the great powers and the federalist, neoliberal and militarist course, or you converge with the communists, ecologists and many other activists without party affiliation in the CDU, this April force of democracy, sovereignty and peace.

Here we are with João Oliveira, the first candidate in this candidacy serving the interests of the workers and people.

We are here to face the aims of economic groups, monopolies and multinationals that have the European Union as one of the instruments at their disposal.

Here we speak the truth.

And the truth is that the EU funds and so-called “bazookas” do not compensate, as they have never compensated, for everything that has been abdicated and is being abdicated in our development.

The truth is that, with the Euro, the country only experienced economic stagnation, wage restraint, fewer services and public investment.

The truth is that disrespect for the country's independence is a consequence of submission and interferences by the EU.

The truth is that the Common Agricultural Policy of Brussels pays some not to produce, favours large landowners and forces the country to buy from abroad what it produced before.

The truth is that the country lost monetary sovereignty with all the consequences that are there and which became very clear during the troikas' Pact of Aggression; and in the way it is expressed today in the brutal increase in interest rates decreed by the ECB.

The truth is that the country, following orders from the EU and at the hands of successive governments, handed over each of its strategic companies abroad, and now looks at TAP as yet another opportunity for the multinationals that share among them the skies of Europe.

The truth is that there is a new directive that gives the European Commission full powers to impose on the country rhythms for debt reduction, more tightening on public spending for the State's social functions, less investment, more cuts in public services, more privatisations, attacks on labour rights and social protection, more wage restraint.

The truth is that the European Union seems to want to ban the word Peace and wants to continue spending increasingly more billions of euros on war, on weapons and into the pockets of those who profit from death and human suffering, whether in Ukraine, Palestine or any other conflict.

The European Union is at the service of big capital, and it determines the course of policies, and the truth is that they don't care about the workers, peoples, immigrants, nature and the environment.

We do not collude, and we do not fail to denounce and defy the path of constraint on the country's sovereign development, this path of right-wing policies fully aligned with the European Union's options.

It was not against the EU, on the contrary, that 16 billion public euros went to plug the holes in corruption and private management of banks.

It is not against, on the contrary, it is in accordance with the EU, that one billion euros are transferred yearly to Public Private Partnerships; that half of the healthcare budget is to feed the private business of disease; that the richest 10% have more than half of all the country's wealth; that 1.6 billion in tax benefits are allocated to economic groups.

It is not against it, but rather it is in strict compliance with EU rules that 13.8 billion euros of profits and dividends leave the country every year.

The correct balances of the EU's options and right-wing policies unbalance the lives of millions of people, as was expressed during the absolute majority of the PS and which they want to worsen in view of the correlation of forces, even more favourable to the policy of social regression, resulting from the legislative elections and which the formation of the PSD/CDS government confirms.

Here we are, without hesitation, without harbouring any illusions and with all the instruments at our disposal to give, from the first minute, a firm fight against the project and goals of right-wing policies, be it in the Assembly of the Republic, on the streets and in the development of the mass struggle. This struggle that has a concrete expression in companies and workplaces, but which extends to various sectors and strata.

This is the determining factor for resistance, but also for the demand for answers and the defence of the rights and values of April.

It's time to take to the streets everywhere and affirm the achievements, the values and the present and future project, that the April Revolution is.

We once again call for massive participation in the popular celebrations of the 50th. anniversary of the 25th. of April. April is more future, which comes to fruition in this May Day of the workers.

Let's turn May Day into a great moment to affirm the fair demands of workers.

We are going to fight the election campaign for the European Parliament, with the usual people wanting to take the debate away from people's lives and in this way trying to cover up the responsibilities – whether of successive governments or the EU – for the situation the country has reached.

But here is the CDU to bring into discussion the consequences of the EU's options in everyday life and with the clarity of someone who associates the defence of sovereignty with the fight for a Europe of workers and peoples, of Peace, cooperation and social progress.

Unlike everyone else, the CDU stands, clearly, for national sovereignty and independence, for the right of the people to decide their path.

Here we are with the courage of those who do not resign themselves, of those who intervene to change, of those who stand up to the great lords of money and the capitalist system, here we are, this force of April that for this very reason is and will be subject to hostility.

It is this courage and this force that is needed in the European Parliament, we need to give more strength to the CDU, more strength to those who work, to those who face injustice, inequality, discrimination, and to those who are rightly angry.

It is the CDU that makes and has made a difference, whether in the European Parliament or here in the direct and regular contact carried out by elected MPs.

Question the PS, PSD and CDS how their MPs positioned themselves on each and every matter that affects the lives of all of us.

Question what they are doing there and who these MPs serve, to whom Chega and IL now want to join.

We are going into the electoral battle of the European Parliament facing all the barriers and a few more they want to impose on us, but determined and committed, and with accumulated experience, to carry out a great journey of clarification and build CDU’s election result.

A result that, once again, depends on each and every one, a result built in each talk, in each contact, in each company and workplace, in each school and university, in each place, in each street and locality.

Let us count on our strength and our determination, let us count on the people and the workers, let us count on the many, many who, as in previous elections, will join the CDU.

Today we kick off a battle of great importance for the struggle that is there, and which is crucial to build, day by day, the alternative that is necessary.

That is also why it is necessary to strengthen the PCP and CDU in the European Parliament, to give strength to Democracy, Peace and Sovereignty.

With confidence, always with you whatever happens, here we are, alongside the workers, alongside the people, at the service of the Country, every day and at all times.

Let's go to work!