Statement by Jeronimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the PCP on the results of the general elections
1 - The result obtained by the CDU [Portuguese Communist Party –Green Ecologist Party electoral coalition] is an unequivocal consolidation of the electoral expression which the CDU has been registering in the past few years, election after election. The result obtained by the CDU, reflected in an increase in its electoral percentage and in the number of elected MPs, with the election of one more MP in the Faro District for the first time in 20 years, is of undeniable significance, reflecting a broader recognition of its activity, of the proposals and role of the PCP, of the Ecologist The Greens Party and of the Democratic Intervention, in the country's political life. This is a result which encourages and strengthens this force, which is the most solid, coherent and steadfast reference in the defense of the interests of the workers, of young people and of the people
The result achieved by the CDU, with the hundreds of thousand voters expressing their confidence in the CDU, is all the more important and noteworthy, since obtaining this result – in a media context which was marked by the silencing and disregard for our message – implied overcoming resignation and fear; defeating the lies and dissimulation of those who, up to the very last moment of the electoral campaign, never disclosed their true programs and political intentions; defeating the artificial bipolarizations and the false disputes which sought to illude that these were elections in which the Portuguese people would elect 230 MPs, and not this or that Prime Minister.
The unparalleled action of clarification and mobilization which the CDU built during this election campaign, mobilized wills and determination, unleashed energies, contributed to a widespread perception and awareness about the country's real problems, about those who are responsible for the current situation and, above all, contributed to assert a patriotic and alternative left-wing policy, which will live on in the future activity and struggle which the workers and the people will be called upon to wage.
2 - The result obtained by the PSD, far from results which this party has obtained in other occasions, is a direct expression of the discredit accumulated by the Socialist Party [PS] but, above all, it is the direct result of a clever campaign which sought to dissimulate [that Party's] responsabilities for the country's situation, to illude its own identification and the common responsibilities for all the worst decisions of the PS Government. This was an election campaign where the PSD concealed its real intentions, which are contained in the Programme of aggression and submission which it signed, arm-in-arm with the other Parties of the right-wing policies.
PSD and CDS may well insist tonight and in the coming hours on verbal exchanges about the future government, the posts and Ministries that each of them will demand, but this will only illude the predictable understandings on that which unites them, and will unite them: the defense of the economic and financial groups' interests; the materialization of a programme, a pact with the IMF, the EU and the ECB, which is a true declaration of war against the rights and living standards of the workers and the people. This is the programme which all together and each on their own, they hid from the Portuguese people.
The result of these elections are essentially a direct expression of an electoral support resulting from the promises and intentions which the PSD, CDS and PS have sowed, always eluding the fact that the Memorandum which they signed with the IMF and the EU is, in fact, their only true programme of action.
The votes that PSD and CDS, but also the PS, have now obtained, may be presented as the result of their false promises. But they cannot in any way be invoked to legitimize the programme of foreign interference which they concealed, and which was therefore not scrutinized. Nor [can they be used] to justify measures of further exploitation of the working people, of greater injustice, of the impoverishment and decline of the country.
3. Difficult times lie ahead for the workers, the people and the country. Not just because Portugal's situation presents serious and grave problems, but above all because the intentions of the right-wing policies and of those who are getting ready to carry it out, are those of compressing even further the living standards of the Portuguese people, of those who have less and are more vulnerable, at the same time as they hand out benefits and profits to capital.
But these are also times of confidence, which the CDU's result inspires. Confidence in the struggle and the resistance of millions of Portuguese – even of those who have now voted for the Parties of the troika, but who will quickly join us in defense of their rights – to confront and defeat the anti-patriotic projects and measures which they are trying to impose upon us. Confidence in the determination of the workers, the youth and the people, in resisting and defeating each of the measures which will have to be adopted by the Government or in Parliament.
Confidence that, in this struggle, they can count on the presence, the coherence and the militancy of the PCP and PEV MPs, but also on our strength and determination to defend, with them, our rights and jobs, to fight against precariousness, to increase wages and retirement pensions, to value domestic production, to support small and medium farmers and businesspeople, to make the banks, the big economic groups and the big fortunes pay the price of the crisis which they, themselves, have created.
The PCP, honouring its pledges, will present in the beginning of the parliamentary session, a draft resolution to immediately open up a process of renegotiating the national public debt. This is the only real alternative that can avoid irreparably jeopardizing for many decades to come, the country's future, its sovereignty and any prospect for its development. We will also present initiatives to value wages and pensions, ensure the struggle against precarious jobs, to defend workers' rights and to valur public services.
Aware of the difficulties and dangers which threaten the country's near-term future, the CDU reaffirms its conviction that the patriotic and left-wing policies which we propose, in order to confront and overcome the country's problems, will emerge in the near future as the only solid and safe way forward, which can block the path of national decline and impoverishment to which the right-wing policies – regardless of the line-ups that will emerge in the next few days – wants to lead the country.
4. We greet the thousands of candidates, activists and members of the PCP, PEV and ID, of the CDU Youth and the many independents which, with their generous dedication and their activity, contributed to clarify, to mobilize and to build this CDU result.
The CDU also greets all those who gave us their support and their vote, and in particular the many thousands who did so for the first time, reaffirming to you our strongest pledge that, in your action, you will find a force that does not just remain true to its word, but that corresponds to your yearnings and aspirations. A support and confidence that is a solid factor of encouragement for the everyday struggle, and which will tomorrow continue, in order to achieve a new, patriotic and left-wing policy, in defense of the interests of the workers and the people, to assert Portugal as a sovereign and independent nation.
