The report of the Drafting Committee which was distributed contains information on the accepted amendments to Proposal of Political Resolution submitted to the XXII Congress.

These days of work are the culmination of a preparatory debate that confirmed the involvement of the Party's collective and its decisive role in building the Party's analysis and orientation.

A debate that is itself an act of affirmation of political and ideological independence, determined by our own thinking, by our class criteria in evaluating political, economic and social developments.

A debate considering the present dangers and threats, the great inequality of means in the struggle we are waging, our own inadequacies and difficulties, but in which fatalistic visions or critical conceptions were rejected, and possibilities of intervention were indicated, affirming confidence in the Party, in the workers, in the popular masses.

A debate that neither ignored nor closed itself to life and the surrounding world, on the contrary, thousands of communists discussed the theses over months, incorporating our experience of struggle, our heritage of reflection, the knowledge of the reality in which we intervene and to which we are connected. A discussion using Marxism-Leninism, which urges us to make a concrete assessment of every concrete situation and to reject opportunism and dogmatism, and itself constitutes an instrument of analysis and a guide to action, not only to understand but to transform the world.

The debate and its outcome are an important testimony to a unique and singular process, aimed at involving as many militantes as possible, to stimulate their reflection and contribution. There is some justified dissatisfaction. It would have been desirable if participation in some organizations had been wider, if many of the opinions and observations expressed could have been translated into concrete proposals, if all comrades had had the opportunity to read and reflect on the document as a whole.

But the debate is the best proof of the profoundly democratic character of our Party life, of the assumed choice to stimulate the broad participation and involvement of Party members. A debate in which all opinions count. A debate that confirms that there is no other political force in the Portuguese reality that takes its internal democracy so far. Do not underestimate this important heritage and method of analysis and collective decision. It is not a mere question of formality. The correctness of our orientation, the capacity for political intervention and action, are inseparable from the democratic life of PCP. They are a fundamental element of the Party's strength to act and fight, to fulfill its role in the service of the workers, the people and the homeland.

Having reached the Congress, we can say the debate was guided by our principles and methods of analysis, without claiming to have all the certainties, but with the deep conviction that what we decide is determined based on what we are and where we want to go.

Comrades,

Throughout its seven chapters, the Proposal for a Political Resolution outlines in its theses an assessment of the evolution of the country and the world, identifies perspectives, outlines guidelines for struggle and intervention.

The theses are a thorn in the side of the neoliberal, militaristic and increasingly reactionary dogmas they seek to impose on us every day.

Based on an understanding of capitalism, its nature, its inability to respond to the problems of humanity. We denounce imperialism, its strategy and instruments of political, economic, military and ideological domination, which sow war, confrontation and death. We analyse the process of rearrangement of forces on a world scale, with its tendencies, contradictions and possibilities. We evaluate the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples, in a correlation of forces on the world level that is still unfavourable to the communist parties and other anti-imperialist forces. We signal dangers, but also the potential of the current situation. And we confirm, with unshakable confidence, that socialism is the great demand of the present and of the future.

The theses are a courageous denunciation of the consequences of right-wing politics, of the submission of the country to the process of European capitalist integration and the impositions of imperialism, to the interests of big capital whose domination grows, as do its ambitions to complete the counter-revolutionary process and the impulse given to reactionary forces, conceptions and projects.

In the theses, we unmask the PSD, CDS, Chega, IL, but also PS whose submission to the interests of big capital contrasts with persisting illusions.

In the theses, we identify the present conditions of struggle, inseparable from the evolution of the country and the world, and that reveal an overwhelming ideological offensive and the powerful means that support it. An offensive that is expressed either in anti-communism or in the projection of ideas inherent to capitalism and the bourgeois ideology, aimed at favouring and perpetuating exploitation.

In the theses, we alert to the threats posed to the democratic regime, but also the existing forces (that cannot be underestimated) to resist, to defend and affirm the values of April. And we value the struggle as a factor of resistance, conquest and social transformation. Struggle of the workers, but also of other anti-monopoly layers and classes, in a very diverse but convergent framework in the fight against right-wing politics and in the construction of an alternative. We value the role of mass organizations and movements, especially the united trade union movement. We value the role of many other organizations, entities, associations, as spaces of participation, achievement and struggle, in which communists participate side by side with other democrats and patriots.

In theses, we face the difficulties. It is difficult to find another political force that so clearly exposes a framework of its party situation as PCP. But the theses value the courage and determination with which we have faced successive campaigns against the Party.

How we respond to right-wing politics and the PS and PSD/CDS governments.

How we stimulate and energize the struggle and intervention of the masses.

How we recruited thousands of members to the Party, and integrated them and responded to new demands.

How we took the initiative in every company, in every city, in every place.

And how we set new goals and guidelines, particularly in terms of leadership, cadres, organization, ideological struggle, propaganda, and our financial independence.

In the theses, we outline a path for the country. In the people's struggle there are no dead ends. The workers and the people are not condemned to injustice, inequality, poverty and corruption.

The basis for achieving the political alternative we propose to the Portuguese people lies in a rupture with the right-wing politics and in the fulfillment of the Constitution of the Republic.

Wages, pensions, rights, public services, housing, national production, public companies, economic planning, social justice, sovereignty, democracy, peace, these are central elements of the patriotic and left-wing policy that we propose to the Portuguese people. A path that requires confronting the reactionary projects of big capital and the impositions of the EU. A path that puts workers, the people and the country at the center of political action.

A path that requires the whole party, as the motto of our congress states, to take the initiative.

Take the initiative and energize the fight.

Take the initiative in strengthening mass organizations and movements.

To take the initiative in contacting and promoting the convergence of democrats and patriots.

Take the initiative in strengthening the Party. Strengthening its organization, its initiative, its influence on national life.

As we stated in the theses, the change that the country demands, needs more and more intervention, courage, project and strength of PCP.

And the theses are also a challenge. A challenge to workers, to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and farmers, to women and pensioners, to immigrants and youth, to democratic sectors and forces, to courageously resist the politics of exploitation, of regression, of the promotion of war. A challenge calling others to converge with us in the struggle for a country of progress and social justice, with the values of April in the future of Portugal.

And to all of them we can say from here, today, as always, you can count on the Portuguese Communist Party.

Long Live The Struggle of the workers and Peoples!

Long live the Portuguese Communist Youth!

Long live the XXII Congress!

Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!