Within the framework of their traditional relations of friendship and cooperation, a delegation of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) of Cyprus, headed by its General Secretary, Andros Kyprianou, visited Portugal on June 25 and 26, 2015, at the invitation of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP).
During its visit, the AKEL delegation held a meeting with a PCP delegation, headed by Jerónimo de Sousa, PCP General Secretary. During this meeting, the two Parties exchanged information regarding the situation in their countries, the situation in the European Union and other aspects of common interest in the international situation. The PCP reiterated its support for the struggle of AKEL and of the Cypriot people for an end to Turkish occupation and for the reunification of Cyprus and its people, in accordance with United Nations resolutions.
During the meeting, both parties condemned the policies which, in both Portugal and Cyprus, are carried out by right-wing governments and which are at the root of the profound economic and social crisis that affects both countries. Both Parties expressed their mutual solidarity with the struggles waged by the Portuguese and Cypriot peoples against the right-wing policies and in defence of their living standards, their sovereignty and right to economic and social development.
The two Parties reaffirmed their rejection of the European Union's policies and "memoranda of understanding", which seek to lower wages and pensions, to destroy labour and social rights, to attack national sovereignty and democracy, to ensure the accumulation of capital and to hand over to big capital fundamental levers of the economy, as well as to impose domination by the big powers - as is clearly revealed by the unacceptable blackmail and pressure on Greece by the EU and the IMF.
Both Parties rejected the projects to step up the EU - namely Economic and Monetary Union – with a view to further its neo-liberal, militarist and federalist nature, and reiterated their determination to fight for a Europe of cooperation between sovereign States with equal rights, of social progress and peace, valuing the contribution made by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group in the European Parliament, as a confederal arena of cooperation, preserving the specific identity of each, which is independent and with a voice in the European parliament that is alternative to both the right-wing and social-democracy.
Both Parties called for the struggle against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which the EU is negotiating with the USA, and which seeks to carry even further the attack against social and labour rights and the sovereignty of States.
They highlighted the dangers resulting from the war-mongering policies of the USA, NATO and the EU, including in Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and expressed their solidarity with all peoples who are victims of imperialist interference and aggression.
In an international situation that is marked by an ever-deeper structural crisis of capitalism and by imperialism's violent offensive, the two Parties reaffirmed their confidence that the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples will be able to win achievements of an anti-monopolist and anti-imperialist nature, defending peace, sovereignty, justice and social progress and cooperation as fundamental values, as well as asserting the alternative of socialism, in the face of an ever more exploitative, oppressive and violent capitalist system.
Finally, both Parties underscored the importance of the internationalist cooperation and solidarity between Communist parties, and of these with other progressive and revolutionary forces and reiterated their commitment to the process of the International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties, whose 17th Meeting will be held from October 30 to November 1, in Istanbul, Turkey.
