We are almost a month away from the legislative elections, the elections that could determine the political situation of the coming times.

Here is an opportunity to follow a different course, an opportunity that cannot be missed.

It is more than clear that our life is not moving forward by giving more strength and more votes to the PS. The PS that promises everything today is the same PS that strolled together with the four happy-go-lucky, PSD, CDS, Chega and IL on fundamental options, and brought us to the situation we face today.

We know well that the PS is not the same as the PSD, that the PSD is not the same as the CDS and that the latter is different from Chega and IL. We never had any doubts about this. They are different in content, pace and form.

But whenever the eternal question arises, whenever one has to choose between labour and capital; whenever there is a choice between the interests of the people or the interests of economic groups; whenever we have to choose between national interests or the country's submission to foreign orders, always, but always, all of them, although different, choose the same and that is why our lives continue to go backwards.

And that's why we say, the only way for everyone's life to move forward is to give strength to the CDU.

From the PS we know what to expect and for those who still had any doubts, the last two years of absolute majority have put an end to them. Just as we know that what PSD, CDS Chega and IL would like was to go back to 2011, go back to the times of regression, go back to the time when they won all the medals in the Olympics of cuts. In pension cuts, in Christmas and holiday bonuses, in wages, in the “brutal tax increase”.

Yes, they can now sing lullabies, but most of those who now wear the Chega and IL jerseys are the same ones who at the time in the CDS and PSD applauded the misfortune of our people.

We are very proud that, with the strength and struggle of the people and workers, we removed them from power and showed them the door, and that is what they do not forgive and that is why they do not forgive us!

The country does not need any more siren songs or illusions. In the CDU there are no blank cheques nor are there any options, contents or paths to be placed in the hands of others. Anyone who wants to make themselves available to the PS, it is up to them. We know well that the only way to move forward is to change the correlation of forces, give more strength and more MPs to the CDU so that this strength conditions the near future and forces others to come up with fair and necessary proposals and solutions. Left-wing policies are only possible with left-wing options.

Left-wing policies demand ruptures with the path that brought us to this point at the service of economic groups, left-wing policies cannot stand injustice and inequality, left-wing policies subject economic power to political power, left-wing policies are not achieved through well-crafted proclamations, neither by beating one's chest, nor much less by fiery speeches full of intentions, which are nothing more than camouflage to carry out right-wing policies.

Behold what is happening in the rural world.

Forty years of Common Agricultural Policy, in which all of them, PS, PSD, CDS, and now, Chega and IL, placed themselves at the service of agribusiness and the impositions of the European Union. All complicit in the destruction of more than 400 thousand farms; all united in their contempt for small and medium-sized agriculture; all responsible for the loss of income of farmers; all defenders of the dictatorship of large retail that crushes the price paid to producers and increases the country's food dependence.

Farmers, and family farming in particular, have reasons and strong ones, to protest and demand another policy, which guarantees the flow of products at fair prices paid for production. This is what farmers and the country need and not one-off measures, one-off measures do not solve structural problems.

Here, in the PCP and CDU, are those who know the reality of the district, those who fight the problems and who present solutions. The PCP and CDU did more for the district than all the PS and PSD MPs and others elected here, and this is very revealing of the work of each one. It's time to value those who, like the CDU, actually defend and commit themselves to the district and its people, and penalise those who, after the votes are counted, after being elected, quickly forget the way here. They forget the way here, but when they return here it is to promise one thing here and to vote the opposite in Lisbon.

Every rejection of each of our proposals in the Assembly of the Republic represents a setback in the lives of the people in the district and is very demonstrative of how the MPs who were elected here behave and the waste of votes given to them. This is the time to evaluate the work but also to demand explanations. And it is time to present proposals, solutions, commitments and programmes.

We are proposing to the people a reliable, necessary and achievable programme.

We do not propose a shower of promises that these days clog the news and make pretty newspaper front pages, what we propose is more than possible, it's fair! In the PCP and the CDU we make choices: we choose those who work and their work. A clear option that creates so much confusion in some souls.

Our programme, our proposals face the interests, dig deep into injustice, identify those responsible; our programme doesn't fit into everyone else's primers, those who jostle each other to see who is more liberal. Our programme faces the beast where it hurts most. And hence they do not forgive us.

As always and once again we are the target of silencing. But there is something new now, they feel more pressured. We are getting to the heart of the problem and that explains the ink that is being spent in an attempt to discredit our proposals. They are more pressured because the talk that there is no money, the talk that the situation is bad and it is not possible, the talk of “hold on, hold on”, this talk no longer holds like it used to.

A deep feeling of injustice hovers around the country. A fair feeling in the face of growing injustice and inequality.

There are more and more people realising that something is not right here, there are more and more people questioning why there is a vast majority getting more and more squeezed and a few profiting as if there was no tomorrow. It's just that the workers and the people, those who with their work make the economy run, those who with their work create wealth, know that there is really a lot of money and that it is very poorly distributed. They know that there are conditions to increase wages and pensions, to invest in public services and housing. They know that it is fair and even possible to increase wages by 15% and at least 150 euros for all workers.

Yes, it's true, to go ahead with this measure, economic groups, those that earn 25 million in profits per day, would have to earn a little less. And what's the problem with that?

Yes, it's true, to increase wages, to improve the living conditions of those who work or have worked for a lifetime, to respond to the housing drama, the banks could not continue to have 12 million euros a day, they would have to settle for a little less. And what's the problem with that?

The crying no longer sticks, the empty talk no longer sticks. They no longer talk about increasing incomes like the PS does. Income is not a wage, income is bonuses, it is the so-called stimulus to productivity, it is being uncertain whether or not there is such a bonus when everyone knows that the bills are paid every month and they do not wait for the bonuses that will come one day. The promises of a 15th. month free of taxes and Social Security contributions no longer stick, as the PSD and the right-wing team promise.

And there are those who rightly question: so, if there is money for bonuses, if there is money for the 15th. month, why doesn't this money that exists come as certain, doesn't come in the monthly salary?

The apparent concern of those who claim to want to increase wages, but slowly, towards the end of the decade, no longer sticks, the money owed to workers is needed now, now is the time to respond with increases in all wages, now is the time to put an end to the reality of 3 million workers earning up to a thousand euros in gross salary per month.

A few days ago, someone said on television with an air of panic that increasing the wages of all workers by 15% would cost around 15 billion euros. While this number is not completely accurate, we will accept that it will be close.

It's a very large number, it's impressive.

But these 15 billion that we propose to be transferred from capital to labour mean a third of the profits of all companies in the country, after taxes, which in the year 2022 amounted to 45 billion euros!

It's true, to implement this measure profits would drop to 30 billion, so what's the problem? There would not be and there is no problem, the problem lies in the three years of accumulated loss of 15% in wages due to inflation.

“Oh, but the State doesn’t have money, how would it be paid for?” Wasn’t there a budget surplus? These are choices that need to be made.

We are not going to give up on this national emergency, we know that it confronts capital, but we also know that we have workers with us for increased wages, for work, for respect, for a fairer distribution of wealth.

We have the workers with us and the workers are counting on the CDU to repeal the expiry of collective bargaining, to restore the principle of more favourable treatment to workers, in essence to change the correlation of forces in companies and workplaces and thus conquer more wages.

And it is also with the CDU and only the CDU that workers can count to reduce working hours to 35 hours for everyone, to reinforce the rights of those who work shifts, night work and weekends.​

This is a time for choices, if to opt for the interests of economic groups, the choice on the ballot is varied and with different colours, but if to opt for April, if to opt for those who produce wealth, for those who endure all this, for those who deserve and have the right to a better life, for those who have worked all their lives, for young people, for immigrants, for artists, for intellectuals, for micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and small agricultural producers, then the option is one and only one: the vote for the CDU.

The economic groups, those for whom there is never a crisis, there is no austerity, there is no pandemic, there is no war, there is no inflation that stops their profits and puts the concentration of wealth at risk, these already have too many parties for their defence. It is not worth voting for that.

The vote that is worth it, the useful vote, the vote that is needed is the vote for the CDU, the vote that stands up to the interests of those who think they own everything.

Every vote in the CDU is a vote for wages, pensions, healthcare, housing, it is a vote for the rights of parents and children, it is a vote against road tolls, it is a vote for justice and against inequality, it is a vote against corruption and its main source, the promiscuity of economic power with political power.

Yes, this is where the underlying problem lies, this is where the dealings and cronyism are, this is what needs to be attacked once and for all. But about these, not a word. Quietly, quietly so as not to hurt the boss.

And there are many people who are rightly angry, who feel wronged and who, like us, think that it is necessary to shake things up, give a sign to the powerful, squeeze them, as they say. Well, this push, this squeeze is given and only given with the vote for the CDU, the only ones that do not depend on or owe favours to economic groups.

The vote for the CDU, which is a vote of protest but also of solutions, and they are our solutions, is the strength that the workers and people give to our proposals, this is what those who think they own everything are afraid of. It's not about shouting, it's not about demagoguery, it's not about populism. They are not afraid of this, not only are they not afraid, but they also fund them, give them space and open doors for them.

The CDU is expanding and growing, and people know, even voters from other parties, from their own experience, that when we grow and move forward, everyone's life improves. And they know that the CDU, its votes and its MPs have never failed, nor will they fail, to propose, take the initiative or converge on anything positive. There is no measure, there is no achievement of the people and workers that has not had the participation, contribution, struggle and proposal of the PCP and the CDU.​

They know they can trust, they know how necessary it is to make the CDU stronger, they know that there is no one, there is no political force in our country with more experience of fighting the right, whatever form it takes.

On March 10th, the ballot that everyone will receive here in the district will have different squares, but there is one that is particularly inspiring. The square with the hammer and sickle and the sunflower next to it.

This is the square of the worker, the user, those who are distressed with housing loans and rents, micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and producers, retired people, young people, immigrants, it is in this square that they should cast their vote and their strength, because it is more than certain that the votes of the owners of Galp, Pingo Doce, CTT, ED or Altice will end up in areas other than ours.

It is in the CDU square that labour, the people, the environment, the better life to which we are entitled is located, it is in that square that hope is found and it is in that square where the necessary votes will fall to elect Sandra, the CDU MP for the Braga constituency.

Let's go out there and contact, explain, let's mobilise with confidence, let's move forward.

It's time to vote CDU, it's time to go forward for the better life to which we are entitled. We haven't given up on the country, we haven't given up on the district, there are resources and means, there are strengths and aspirations, and there are trustworthy and honest people with the will and strength to stop those who think they own everything and put the country on the path that marks our history, on the path of the April values.

On this path where the people are the ones who dictate.

Long live the CDU!