Comrades,

The PCP's Program “An Advanced Democracy - The Values of April in the Future of Portugal” remains valid and up-to-date. It is an indispensable tool for our Party's organized action.

Valid and up-to-date, because it calls for permanent action to protect the interests of the people and the country; for a strong and persistent struggle against right wing policies; to strive for the unity of the working class; for the commitment to a broad social front of struggle; to strengthen broad-based mass organizations and movements; for progress in the convergence and unity of democrats and patriots; for combining electoral and institutional action with mass action; for the intensification and convergence of the mass struggle – which is always the decisive and determining factor. And, of course, with its focus on strengthening the PCP - in organizational, social, political and electoral terms - as well as for an increased social awareness of its role in the struggle for rights, to break with the right-wing policies, opening the path to a patriotic and left-wing alternative, to be materialized as an integral part of the Advanced Democracy inspired by the values of April and inseparable from the construction of the new society, without exploiters or exploited, to which the future belongs.

The Advanced Democracy that the PCP Program indicates is simultaneously a political, economic, social and cultural democracy, inspired by the values of April. A democracy that contains, as fundamental goals or components: a regime of freedom, in which the people have the power to decide their destiny, and a democratic and representative State, where participation is ensured; an economic development based on an economy that is mixed, dynamic, freed from the domination of monopolies, at the service of the people and the country; a social policy that guarantees better living conditions for the workers and the people; a cultural policy that ensures widespread access to free cultural creation and enjoyment; an independent and sovereign country with a policy of peace, friendship and cooperation with all peoples.

A Democracy that, by exercising and guaranteeing an effective subordination of economic power to political power, on behalf of, and benefiting, the real interests of the workers and the people, ensures the task of giving life and effective content to all its dimensions.

An advanced democracy that is eminently popular and participatory and involves so much transformation, that many of its goals are already those of a socialist society.

On the horizon of the PCP’s action and struggle, and of its Program, there is the socialist society and on the horizon of the socialist society there is communism, the supreme goal of the PCP's activity.

The Program “An Advanced Democracy - The Values of April in the Future of Portugal” stresses that today's struggle for a more profound democracy – with the prospect of an advanced democracy - seeks to solve many of the most serious problems that currently exist. But it also stresses that eliminating capitalist exploitation and the overall and effective disappearance of discrimination, inequalities, injustice, and social scourges is a historic task that can only be achieved by the socialist revolution. In other words, abolishing the exploitation of man by man; creating a society without antagonistic classes and inspired by humanistic values; democracy with its four components; the permanent and creative participation of the popular masses; a constant increase in the overall material and spiritual well-being of the workers and the people; putting an end to discrimination, inequalities, injustice and social scourges; effectively materializing equal rights for men and women; and the inclusion of young people in the country’s life as a dynamic and creative social force.

That is why the PCP's Program is valid and up-to-date, because it also stresses that the fight for democracy and socialism are inseparable. The great liberating battles are prepared in the daily struggle for concrete and immediate goals.

The current struggle to achieve a patriotic and left-wing policy with responses for the national problems – beginning with its axes and goals (that are clearly indicated in the Draft Political Resolution), clearly points toward democracy, social progress, and national independence. It does not contradict, but rather gives clearer meaning to the struggle for socialism.

In other words, the prospect of a new society, freed from the exploitation of man by man, without antagonistic classes and inspired by humanistic values and the certainty that that is the direction of History gives more confidence to our everyday struggle.

It is therefore with this program that we set out to materialize the political orientation that this Congress is preparing to adopt.

Long live the XXII Congress of the Portuguese Communist Party!

Long live the Portuguese Communist Youth!

Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!