(made before the announcement of the final results)
The CDU [United Democratic Coalition] greets the thousands of candidates, activists and members of the PCP [Portuguese Communist Party], the PEV [Ecology Party – the Greens], of ID [Democratic Intervention] and the CDU Youth and independents who, with their generous and irreplaceable activity and dedication have contributed to a campaign of raising awareness and mobilizing wills, which grew from week to week, confirming the CDU as a force that is profoundly linked to the problems, concerns and aspirations of the workers and the people.
The CDU greets all those who have entrusted it with their support and their vote, and in particular, the many thousands of voters who have done so for the first time, reaffirming to them our firmest pledge that in our activity, they will find a force that will fully honour its word and will correspond to their most legitimate aspirations for a better life. A support and confidence that will represent a solid factor of encouragement for the everyday struggle, which will continue tomorrow, to achieve a new policy, to defend the interests of the workers and the people.
The result obtained by the CDU represents new and stimulating evidence of the sustained growth that in the past few years the CDU has been scoring, in election after election.
The CDU's result is reflected in a larger electoral expression (with a result of approximately 8%, in the context of a larger number of votes) and is a factor of undeniable significance, all the more so, since it is identified with a clear and distinctive project for a break and a change. A result that is an important stimulus in building more and greater advances in the forthcoming local government elections.
The results now obtained by the CDU and especially the current of support for our proposals and activity - although not fully reflected in electoral terms – and, in particular the many thousands of new voters who have given their support to the CDU, are a solid element of confidence for the struggle against social injustice and for the necessary construction of a new policy, as well as for the future political and electoral battles that we will continue to wage for a more just, equal and sovereign Portugal.
The strong electoral setback for the PS [Socialist Party] which lost its absolute majority, is a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the policies of the current government, and is inseparable from the breadth of the resistance and struggle for rights which grew when confronted by the government's offensive, and to which the CDU gave an essential and decisive contribution. A condemnation that has now been confirmed by the vote, but was built throughout a militant course of struggle by those, like the CDU and the vast majority of workers, who did not give up when confronted with an unjust policy imposed by an arrogant absolute majority.
The PSD's result, together with the loss of the PS' absolute majority, confirms the discredit of the right-wing policy and is explained not just by its direct responsabilities in governing the country in a recent past, as well as by the fact that the PS government has been materializing a substantial part of its political agenda. This result has confirmed the wholly artificial nature of the dramatization produced by the PS concerning the "return of the right", in order to recover votes that will now be used to pursue the same policy, if they are allowed to have their way.
The loss of the absolute majority is a factor of the greatest importance in the context of the struggle against the right-wing policies and for an about-turn in the country's political life. Without underestimating the operations that seek to guarantee a political basis of support to continue pursuing the right-wing policies, the CDU underlines the essential role played by the mass struggle, by the activity of all those who seek a change of course, and by our own activity in the Assembly of the Republic [Parliament] and outside of it, which will condition and influence the political process, limit new offensives and attacks against rights, and help to correct injustices.
The CDU reaffirms that no manoeuvres to determine, through academic discussions and speculations, scenarios for governments and majorities, can elude the fact that the decisive issue for the future of the country lies in the content of the policies and the real will to introduce a real change of course.
In coherence with what we always stated, the CDU underlines that the central issue for the country's future is the materialization of the necessary change and a break with the right-wing policies that for over three decades PS and PSD, with or without the CDS, have imposed. A demand for a change and a break from which we will not flinch and for which we will continue fighting, as a national requirement and imperative.
The forthcoming local government elections on October 11 are a chance to confirm the acknowledged legacy of work and achievement which the CDU can present to the country.
Elections in which, as a result of the value of our project, the scale of our work and the example of our management, the CDU will not just consolidate and strengthen its positions, as it will extend them in more parishes and municipalities of the country, ensuring our work and solutions for a better life and asserting the CDU as the great left-wing force in local government.
The forthcoming elections of October 11 represent a new moment to assert the CDU as a growing force, which bears an irreplaceable project for a break and for change, and which is inspired by an unshakeable confidence that it is possible to build a country of progress and a better life for the Portuguese people.
With the encouragement and confidence that the results of these elections legitimately justify, the CDU asserts itself as an essential and irreplaceable force in the struggle for change and a break, which may finally open up a new course for a truly left-wing and alternative policy.