Statement by Francisco Lopes, candidate supported by PCP, the Greens and the "Democratic Intervention"
Statement by Jeronimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the PCP
STATEMENT BY FRANCISCO LOPES
I salute the workers, the youth and the Portuguese people.
I salute the Portuguese Communist Party, the JCP- Portuguese Communist Youth, the “Green”Ecologist Party, Democratic Intervention, the citizens without any party affiliation, the dozens of thousands of activists, men, women, youth, who with their militant participation, their personal and family time, were a source of energy, creativity and strength in this extraordinary campaign.
I salute comrade José Barata Moura, national representative and all other representatives of the candidacy.
I salute all those who voted on my candidacy for President of the Republic and thus transformed it in their own candidacy, giving a clear sign through their vote for a change in national life. Each vote on my candidacy weighs and will weigh in the action to open a new course for Portugal.
This candidacy, which represented a necessity and national imperative, placed before the Portuguese people the essential issue in the times we live: the need of rupture and change in view of the decline and social injustice which has led the country into the quagmire it finds in and the adoption of a patriotic and left-wing course, linked to the values of the April [Revolution] and the materialization of the project set down in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, on a road
towards development, justice and social progress.
This was a candidacy which brought to the campaign and for present and future options, the problems and aspirations of the workers and the people, the need to put an end to the abdication of national interests and of the subordination of the political power to the interests of speculation by a small number of families, shareholders, managers and beneficiaries of the economic and financial groups, affirming national independence and the sovereignty of the people on the future of the
country.
This was a candidacy of the workers. The candidacy which affirmed and affirms the way of national production, of creation of jobs, of valorisation of work and workers, of an answer to the present and
future of new generations, of the right of the women to equality in law and in life, of the role of the intellectuals and technical cadres, of men and women of culture, of a fundamental public sector in basic and strategic sectors, and of support to micro, small and medium size entrepreneurs, of respect for the rights and dignity of the pensioners and the elderly and people with handicaps, of defence and valorisation of public services, of national sovereignty and political, economic, social and cultural democracy.
This was a candidacy which had no commitments with the right-wing policy. A candidacy which marked a difference when compared with all others, because of its course, of the truth, coherence, goals and project, of the campaign and commitment to an intervention which will continue.
The electoral results obtained by my candidacy, clearly above 7% of the votes, represent the affirmation and confirmation of a force and of a project indispensable to open the way for the future of Portugal.
In summing this campaign we also have present, well beyond its expression in votes, the affection,the support and identification with the aims of the candidacy, which represent an important contribution for new political options and the opening of a new patriotic and left-wing course for the country.
The election of Cavaco Silva, although with the lowest voting, or one of the lowest voting, for a second term, represents, not only the continuation, but the worsening of the national problems.
His results are inseparable from the advantage of being in power as President of the Republic, of improper use of corresponding means, of resorting to disguising and concealing his responsibilities regarding the situation of the country and his commitment with the worst of the government’s right-wing policy, including the disastrous consequences of the State Budget for 2011.
My candidacy has given a contribution like no other, to confront Cavaco Silva with his responsibilities in the past 25 years, with his action as President of the Republic, with his position of abdication of national sovereignty and protection of speculators and his connection to the interests of the economic and financial groups, with his connection to practices and commitments with the serious decisions affecting the Portuguese people, with his strategic agreement on the worst aspects of the PS government. My candidacy was a candidacy which, in a serious, consistent, coherent, determined and courageous way faced the candidacy of Cavaco Silva. It was a candidacy which affirmed itself in its criticism and proposals as the real alternative to Cavaco Silva.
Capitalism and its exploitative, oppressive and predatory nature, the policies of the European Union, the policy of decline, injustice and sinking of the country are here to squeeze, more and more, the people and the country.
In the context of the serious situation and difficulties facing the country, the workers, the new generations and all the Portuguese people, my candidacy was an expression and part of the process
of change that Portugal needs and is increasingly necessary and urgent.
The hundreds of thousands of votes on this candidacy represent thousands of voices that say enough, demanding change, a new policy, a better future. Each one said what they wanted by voting on this candidacy and can look at themselves with a clear conscience, saying that “today I did what I should have done”. These hundreds of thousands of voices address all the Portuguese to widen this current of action to change Portugal for the better. It contains our conviction, our determination, and our project, our confidence in the workers, the people and the country. We already have a meeting set for tomorrow and every day that follows, for the struggle that continues and will increase, to beat the national decline and social injustices, to build Portugal with a future, a fairer society.
We carry on and will carry on with full confidence!
We shall continue and intensify the struggle with those who have voted for us and many others who will join us, so that Portugal may live!
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STATEMENT BY JERONIMO DE SOUSA
PCP General Secretary
Lisbon, January 23, 2011
These elections fully confirm the correctness and the importance of the PCP's decision to take part, with its own and autonomous voice, in the debate and clarification regarding the country's situation and
those who are responsible for it, regarding the role and powers of the President of the Republic and the over-arching need for a break with the right-wing policies, that may open the way for a path towards a more developed, just and sovereign Portugal.
Francisco Lopes embodied in these elections the alternative candidacy to Cavaco Silva and the right- wing policies with which he is compromised. Having at the core of his intervention and activity the
need for a different course for Portugal, Francisco Lopes brought to the electoral debate the country's problems, the exposure of the policies and of those who are responsible for the country's situation, the nature of the powers and role that would be required of a President of the Republic who respects, and enforces the respect for, the Constitution of the Republic.
A unique contribution to bring to this campaign crucial issues such as valuing workers and their rights, national production, the requirement
of subordinating economic power to political power, the assertion of national sovereignty and independence.
The votes scored by Francisco Lopes reflect the support of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese and are a militant assertion of the need for a profound change in the country's life. This support will, more than any other, contribute for the necessary and indispensable continuation of the struggle against injustice and the process of national decline to which the PS, PSD and Cavaco Silva have dragged the country.
[Francisco Lopes'] score is all the more significant as it was built on the foundations of a committed popular intervention and mobilization which, overcoming resignations and conformism, overcoming the silencing and discrimination, brought to this campaign a project of hope and confidence in the workers, the people and the country. These were votes for a patriotic and left-wing candidate, free from any links to the right-wing policies and the economic groups and which, like no other , personified a working-class candidacy, a candidacy attached to the values and achievements of [the] April [1974 Revolution].
2. The re-election of Cavaco Silva, which is the negative outcome of these presidential elections, represents, in our country's current situation, not just the continuation of the national problems, but a
qualitative leap for the worse, a renewed factor of encouragement for additional attacks against the democratic regime, the values and achievements of April.
This is a re-election that was built upon the abuse of his nstitutional functions and the resources of the Presidency, that is based on a shameless concealment of his responsibilities for the country's problems
and for the choices and decisions that affect the lives of millions of Portuguese, and on the intolerable blackmail of the voters that he brought to the fore in the last few days. But above all, it directly
benefited from the indignation and rejection of the policies of the José Socrates/PS Government, by many voters who wrongly considered that voting for Cavaco Silva was a means of expressing those feelings.
Cavaco Silva in the Presidency will mean a further worsening of the course of economic decline and social injustice, a confirmation of the country's submission to foreign interests and big capital's blackmail, an encouragement for the continuation of the right-wing policies, whether based on the strategic cooperation with the current PS Government, or on an intervention to pave the way for a PSD-
CDS Government to take office. His presence in the Presidency will certainly ensure stability for right-wing policies, but will represent instability for the lives of the workers and the people.
The fact that Cavaco Silva's score is the smallest majority won in any re-election for a second term,highlights a negative assessment on the way he carried out his functions and on the responsibilities that
he shares for the country's situation. The result is also marked by a disturbing growth in abstentions which are, in themselves, a repudiation of the right-wing policies.
Cavaco Silva's result and his re-election will not stop the growth and intensification of the indignation ,protest and struggle of all those who do not accept the course of inequality and injustice that he has
sponsored.
3.The current of mobilization which the candidacy of Francisco Lopes brought about, its clarification of the country's problems and of the policies which are responsible for them, and the tremendous contribution which his campaign and the work of the thousands of activists which took part in it gave to the struggle against discouragement and dismay, will have an impact in the near future, as an
essential factor to develop the struggle and the political battles which the country's situation and the right-wing policies impose upon the workers and our Party.
4.A special greeting to comrade Francisco Lopes who personified this demanding and important battle, and to the thousands of activists and supporters who built a campaign without parallel in any other candidate, in terms of direct contacts, the mobilization and awareness-raising regarding the country's situation and the role required of a President of the Republic, to respect the Constitution and to act to
ensure a break with the course of national decline and social regression which the policies of successive governments have brought about.
Greetings to all Communists, to the activists of the Ecologist Party, “the Greens” and to the members of the Democratic Intervention Association who honoured this candidacy with their expression of support.
