The Central Committee of the PCP, meeting on October 18 and 19, 2026, analysed developments in the national and international situation and laid down the tasks in terms of the action, initiative and organisation of the Party, in particular the implementation of the guidelines contained in the Resolution “A stronger PCP. It is necessary! It is possible!”.

I -The Party – A decisive and irreplaceable force

1. At a time when the nature of capitalism and the violence of imperialist action are laid bare, when the strength of the resistance and the struggle of the workers and the popular masses is reaffirmed, when dangers that must be confronted and overcome are mounting, and when the need for a new course for Portugal and the world is emerging, the Portuguese Communist Party and its strengthening are a decisive factor.

Its role is grounded in its unique history, in its current intervention, and as an irreplaceable Party for resistance and the building of an alternative.

The Party is a guarantee of an indestructible commitment to the workers, the people and the youth, in the struggle for their rights, interests and aspirations.

The Party inspires confidence, shows the way forward and drives the action, in all circumstances, even the most difficult ones.

Now is the time to act with determination and confidence, with the joy that is inseparable from the struggle for what is just, for the building of a new society and for a world of peace and social progress.

2. The Central Committee of the PCP stresses the remarkable work of the party collective, its role in the broader political action, in the great victory of the workers’ struggle that defeated the Labour Package, the great success of the 50th. edition of the Avante! Festival, and the steps taken to strengthen the Party.

3. The Central Committee of the PCP emphasises the importance of the guidelines set out in the Central Committee Resolution “A stronger PCP. It is necessary! It is possible!”, for the qualitative leap that is required and which life itself proves is possible in terms of the Party’s organisation, intervention, connection and influence with the masses.

Reality shows the need to make progress on the five priorities identified: the implementation of the general drive to strengthen leadership and organisational structure, linked to attributing responsibilities to cadres; the general attribution of responsibilities to cadres, with a view to consolidating and expanding a broad core of cadres and their training; the implementation of a broad plan to strengthen the Party’s organisation and intervention amongst the working class and workers in companies and workplaces, which also involves a plan to encourage trade union membership and the involvement of Party members in strengthening trade unions and other unitary workers’ organisations; the strengthening of action amongst the youth; and progress in the work of communication, information, propaganda and the press.

At the same time, it is necessary to make progress on other important aspects referred to in the Central Committee’s Resolution, which complete the ten main guidelines: the recruitment of new Party members and their integration; the handing of the new Party membership card, based on a wide contact and individual conversations aimed at boosting Party militancy; work with specific social strata and sectors; the promotion of the Avante! Festival; and action to ensure the Party’s financial independence.

The work required to strengthen the Party demands responsibility and action of its members; it involves a strong call for new members to join the Party and entails the coordination of leadership work at various levels, as well as the organisation, planning and regular monitoring of implementation.

II - National Situation

1. The worsening of problems and the deterioration of living conditions that characterise the situation in the Country are direct consequences of the actions of the PSD/CDS Government and of an agenda in which the implementation of its programme is a key factor. What the current Government is carrying out is a comprehensive offensive led by big capital, which continues decades of right-wing policy and seeks to achieve the central objectives of the counter-revolutionary action that anti-democratic forces and projects have long sought.

This offensive is characterised by an assault on rights – based on a process of restructuring the State aimed at destroying public services and the State’s social functions – the consequences of which are reflected in increased exploitation and injustice, the undermining of sovereignty, the denial of the Country’s right to development, and the democratic impoverishment of national life.

An offensive based on an anti-social, anti-patriotic and anti-democratic policy, which unambiguously embraces an economic model based on low wages and the erosion of workers’ rights – a model which the defeat of the Labour Package curbed; the aim of destroying the National Health Service and everyone’s right to healthcare, by promoting the “business of illness” handed over to private economic groups; the attack on Public Schools and the right to education, to the detriment of equality, integration and the overall education of children and youth; the denial of the right to housing through the promotion of speculation, using evictions, the persecution of tenants, the sell-off of public property, the handing over of millions of euros in tax benefits and usurious banking practices as instruments of its policy; the preparation of an assault on Social Security, aimed at handing over billions of euros of workers’ resources to the speculative spiral of private funds and insurance companies; the surrender of national sovereignty and the development of the country’s productive and technical capacities, by offering ever-increasing portions of the national economy to foreign capital, as has now happened with the announcement of the criminal privatisation of TAP; alignment with war and the arms race, sacrificing public resources contrary to national interests; the intended subversion of the democratic system, including the intention to carry out a subversive amendment of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.

This policy is backed by an intense ideological offensive, of a reactionary and retrograde nature, based on instilling fear, promoting division and selfishness, xenophobia and racism, individualism and anti-communism; on the myth of a supposed democratic right and a non-democratic right, so that, in the name of a false fight against “extremism”, right-wing policies can be further increased; on the instrumentalization of the need to balance public accounts, using the European Union’s and the euro’s requirements regarding the deficit, debt and now public spending to justify cuts to rights and the refusal to address problems, whilst at the same time diverting public resources to big capital; in the instrumentalization of fiscal policy and criteria to evade the necessary responses, protecting the profits of big capital and concealing the central role they play in the price rises we have been witnessing.

2. The PSD/CDS Government is the direct sponsor of a policy with a very clear class-based agenda and objectives, designed to favour economic groups and multinationals. This agenda and these objectives are shared by Chega and the IL, its key partners, and find in the PS the complicity essential to their materialisation.

The 2027 State Budget is a gift to capital and a disaster for the Country. Even though some measures have been conveniently removed from it, it remains the budgetary expression of this Government’s policy, its choices and its objectives. The PS’s abstention, ensuring the budget’s passage for the third consecutive year, is an expression of complicity with the Government’s actions and its policies. In the name of cynical and false justifications such as “responsibility”, “stability” or “avoiding crises”, what the PS is revealing is its alignment with the current policy, in a clear display of contempt and political calculation. Contempt for the hardships that this decision causes for the workers and the people, who in fact face instability and crisis. Political calculation, in refusing to oppose the policy of national destruction whilst banking on potential future electoral gains. A stand which, beyond its immediate significance, gives “Chega” party greater margin to continue its charade of opposition, allowing it to keep disguising the objectives it shares with the PSD and CDS, as has just been confirmed by its support for the new eviction law, and, at the same time, to position itself as a reserve force for the capital that promotes and feeds it, in the face of the discontent caused by decades of alternating governments between the PSD and the PS.

3. The ongoing global offensive must be met with a global response capable of halting and defeating it. Such a response requires, as indispensable conditions, the struggle of the workers and the people; the broadening of the social front of struggle, like the defeat inflicted on the Labour Package; and the strengthening of unitary mass organisations. A response that requires the concerted action of democrats and patriots in upholding democratic values, defending the Constitution of the Republic, denouncing reactionary and fascistic ideologies, and defending peace and opposing war. A response for which the strengthening of the PCP, its affirmation, influence and initiative, is a decisive prerequisite. A response not only to resist the policies and plans of the right, but also to build the necessary political alternative based on breaking with the power of monopoly capital, upholding workers’ rights, adopting an economic policy free from external impositions, rejecting the guidelines and policies dictated by the EU and the interests of those who dominate it, and defending sovereignty, peace and cooperation.

Whilst there are points of common ground and convergence with other forces that claim to oppose the current dominant policy, what is required is clarity of purpose, standing up to the interests of big capital and a rejection of external impositions, not mere words, but consistent action that breaks with right-wing politics and with the aim of building a patriotic, left-wing alternative.

III - International Situation

1. Recent developments confirm, on a global scale, the serious deterioration of the international situation.

Reflecting the structural crisis of capitalism, the imperialist powers gathered in the G7 are grappling with mounting difficulties and contradictions. This is the case of the US, with the significant growth in debt, the continuing trend towards the creation of speculative bubbles, and the dominance of finance capital, which enhances the parasitic nature of the system.

Big capital, using governments at its service, is plunging headlong into increased exploitation, attacks on labour rights and other social rights, the degradation and destruction of public services such as healthcare, education and social security, the privatisation of public enterprises, real estate speculation, attempts to control new technologies, increased military spending, the plundering of public resources, including through fiscal policy, concentrating and centralising wealth whilst exacerbating social injustices and inequalities and the predatory exploitation of natural resources.

US imperialism, relying on the alignment and subordination of the other G7 powers, NATO and the EU, fosters confrontation, an arms race and war, endangering world peace and security and confirming itself as the greatest threat facing Humanity.

This is an exploitative and aggressive onslaught based on control of the mass media and the intensification of repression, on attacks on democratic freedoms and rights, on the promotion of reactionary, obscurantist and fascist ideologies and forces, and on attacks and attempts to criminalise those who legitimately defend freedom, sovereignty, democracy and rights, justice and equality, peace and solidarity

Mired in growing contradictions, the European Union persists with its neoliberal, militarist and federalist policies, implements measures that favour economic and financial groups, promotes the incitement of war and warmongering hysteria, instils fear to facilitate the prolongation and escalation of war, diverts ever more resources to arms at the expense of social rights, and promotes mechanisms aimed at an even greater centralisation of power within its supranational institutions, which are dominated by the major powers and the interests of their monopolistic groups.

2. The visit to Portugal by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, laid bare the PSD/CDS Government’s subservience to US imperialism – exemplified by its authorisation for the US to use Lajes Air Base as a platform for military aggression against Iran – whilst reaffirming its shameful commitment to and involvement in imperialism’s aims of domination and its warmongering strategy.

3. There is a realignment of forces at global level and we have to highlight the important role played by the People’s Republic of China. As an expression of growing and legitimate discontent, we value the struggles that have been waged in various countries, including Portugal, by workers, the general public and youth, for better wages and pensions, against the rising cost of living, in defence of public healthcare, education and social security services, the right to housing, democratic rights and freedoms, against increased spending on arms, against militarism and war, for peace, for sovereignty, in solidarity with Palestine and Cuba, and against policies that serve big capital and imperialism.

The Central Committee of the PCP calls for the continuation and expansion of solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle to end the genocide and materialise their national rights; with the struggle of the Lebanese and Iranian peoples to defend their homelands against imperialist aggression; with socialist Cuba, for an end to the blockade and the escalation of aggression and threats from the US; for the sovereignty of Venezuela and the release of President Nicolás Maduro and MP Cília Flores; with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe and those throughout the world who are resisting the threats, interference and aggression of imperialism; as well as the struggle for peace and disarmament, against militarism and war, for the dissolution of NATO, for the rejection of the militarisation of the EU, for peace in Europe and the establishment of a collective security system.

The Central Committee of the PCP salutes with confidence the candidacy of Lula da Silva and the Brazilian democratic and progressive forces which are committed and converge in the second round of the presidential elections to be held on October 25, with a view to securing victory for the candidacy that embodies hope in the struggle for a better life to which the Brazilian people aspire and are entitled.

In the face of today’s major challenges, there is a need to continue and strengthen resistance and the struggle, with the confidence that workers and peoples are not doomed to the exploitation, oppression, aggression and predation of capitalism and that, as reality shows, it is the building of a new society, socialism, that stands out as a necessity for the future of Humanity.

IV - Struggle, the path to victory

1. Following the workers’ victory in the struggle against the Labour Package, the struggle and claiming action continued with the aim of improving wages and working conditions and valorising careers. Sectors such as the hospitality industry, transport, central and local government, and the teachers saw significant struggles during this period, alongside actions by the security forces, researchers and scholarship holders, and dozens of actions in companies and workplaces.

The national demonstration “Higher wages, better pensions and public services/Against the rising cost of living/A new course for Portugal!”, called by the CGTP-IN and held in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Funchal on October 17, crowning a month of mobilisation and struggle, was a powerful demonstration of outrage and protest, demanding solutions to problems and a better life; it was a major rallying point for rejecting right-wing policies and calling for a new course for Portugal.

Also worth highlighting are the protests by the population against price increases, in defence of the NHS, for the right to housing and mobility, and demanding answers to address the consequences of the storms. There have also been protests by pensioners, farmers and students, calling for peace, against war and the arms race, and in support of internationalist solidarity, particularly with Cuba and Palestine.

2. In the struggle of the workers and the popular masses, and in terms of its impact and outcomes, the unitary mass organisations of workers and other social strata and sectors play a decisive role and whose strengthening is of particular importance.

3. The Central Committee of the PCP calls on Party members and organisations to boost and intensify the struggle of the workers, the youth, pensioners and the populations, as the strongest way to resolve problems, defend and secure rights, and intervene in national political life in order to break with right-wing policies and chart a new course for Portugal.

V - Initiative and immediate tasks

The Central Committee of the PCP salutes the Party’s militants and the JCP for their intensive action, which must be continued and deepened in terms of political initiative, mass struggle, and the contribution to strengthening unitary mass organisations, alongside unitary political work, in conjunction with the ongoing efforts to strengthen the Party.

The Central Committee of the PCP reaffirms the need for action focused on the objective of a rupture with right-wing politics, implementing the patriotic and left-wing alternative, and upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.

In this regard, it points out the following lines of work:

• the action “End Injustice: A New Course for Portugal”, developing a line of street initiatives, awareness-raising activities, mobilisation and contact with workers and the population, taking the lead in addressing their problems, against the rising cost of living and exploitation, and continuing to unite the struggle;

• the Demonstration and Rally-Festival in Porto for “Wages, Rights, Peace” on October 25;

• the action in defence of the right to housing, against the eviction law, for stable renting contracts, rent control, reduced mortgage repayments and the promotion of public housing;

• the action to defend and valorise public services, in particular the NHS, at the outset with the promotion of Party actions across the Country on October 30, covering public schools, Social Security and public transport, and in defence of the environment and public water supply;

• the fight against privatisations and the condemnation of right-wing policies and the options contained in the 2027 State Budget;

• the action “Children and parents with rights, Portugal with a future”, starting in November, which will develop initiatives aimed at parents and families, as well as education and healthcare professionals and the grassroots community movement;

• the campaign “Storms 2026 – Respond, resolve, prevent” in response to the lack of solutions of problems that have dragged on;

• the initiative against the process of subverting the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic;

• the struggle for peace and the strengthening of internationalist solidarity, linking this to the struggle to improve living conditions;

• support for the holding of the JCP’s National Conference on Higher Education and National Meeting on Secondary Education on November 21, given the importance these events will have in the struggle of Portuguese youth;

• the initiatives commemorating the 109th. anniversary of the October Revolution and the 113th. anniversary of Álvaro Cunhal’s birth, as well as those marking the 90th. anniversary of Ary dos Santos’s birth, notably the commemorative show to be held on December 6, in Lisbon;

• the preparations for the Avante! Festival to be held on September 3, 4 and 5, 2027, notably including the advance sale of the EP, following the success of the 2026 Avante! Festival in terms of its scale, scope and significance.

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A stronger PCP is necessary, is possible. In the context of great challenges, we must struggle, resist, take action and seize the initiative, with determination and confidence, to build a patriotic, left-wing political alternative, for an advanced democracy with the values of April in Portugal’s future, for socialism and communism.