The Central Committee of the PCP, meeting on February 10, 2026, analysed the results of the second round of the elections for President of the Republic and their most immediate impact on the national political situation. The Central Committee of the PCP expressed its solidarity with the populations affected by severe weather and storms.

1. The significant defeat of André Ventura in the second round of the elections for President of the Republic is particularly important. This result reflects a clear rejection of a reactionary and retrograde project, particularly significant given the promotion it has enjoyed in recent years, intensified in these elections.

While welcoming this defeat, which the PCP called for, we must not underestimate the negative impact that the widespread dissemination of reactionary and backward conceptions, in these elections and beyond, has had on large sections of the population. The insistence on a discourse based on intolerance and lies, the encouragement of xenophobic and racist conceptions, the calls for division and discrimination, the instrumentalization of justified dissatisfaction and discontent, and the attack on democratic values and rights must be firmly denounced and fought. These reactionary conceptions include an entire anti-democratic construction that attributes to the April Revolution everything that is the result of the counter-revolutionary process, of destruction of most of the achievements of April, and 50 years of right-wing politics, which have openly denied and confronted the prospects that April opened up for a fairer and sovereign Portugal.

The Central Committee of the PCP denounces, on the one hand, the supposed neutrality of the PSD, CDS, IL and of candidate Cotrim Figueiredo regarding André Ventura's candidacy, which is in itself an expression of collusion with his conceptions, and, on the other hand, the position of the PS, namely its viabilization of the Government's policy, as it did in the State Budget for 2026, which makes it easier for Chega to mystify as opposition to the Government's policy.

2. The President of the Republic, António José Seguro, has a duty to be faithful to the oath he will take to uphold, comply with and enforce the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, and not to support a policy that violates it. His repeated statements, both before and after the elections, guaranteeing cooperation with the Government, or his reiterated commitment to creating conditions of stability for the continuation of the current policy at the service of big capital, are contrary to the options needed in the exercise of his functions, which require him to refuse to support the Government's current course of regression and attack on rights.

3. The PCP will determine its institutional relationship with the President of the Republic by the clear and frontal affirmation of the constitutional values and demanding their observance. The affirmation of each and every one of the rights enshrined in the Constitution, the demand for their respect and compliance, the struggle for change and rupture essential to overcome national problems, demand the determined action of the workers and the people, the expansion of the mass struggle and the convergence of democrats and patriots.

4. In view of the devastation caused by the storm Kristin and the succession of severe weather in recent weeks, the Central Committee of the PCP expresses its solidarity with the families of the victims and the affected populations, extending this solidarity to all those involved in support and restoration work. Given the late and insufficient response from the Government, the PCP will table a set of immediate proposals aimed at mobilising the necessary resources and taking decisions to guarantee the wages and rights of the workers affected, the incomes of small and medium-sized farmers and entrepreneurs, the rehabilitation of housing, equipment and infrastructure, the restoration of productive capacity in industry, agriculture, fisheries and services that has been destroyed, and the prompt restoration of economic, social and cultural life in the affected areas.

Once again, the Country is facing dramatic situations and is confronted with delays, hesitations, insufficiencies and a lack of coordination in its response. This reality reveals the consequences of wrong political choices, which have exacerbated problems, deprived the State of fundamental levers, such as strategic sectors and companies, and dismantled public services, leaving it without the capacity or tools for the rapid response that is required in these situations.

5. The Central Committee of the PCP stresses that the Country's problems demand a change of course. The struggle of the workers and the people is an essential factor and condition to halt regression, assert rights and build a different policy. A struggle capable of mobilising consciences and stimulating participation, transformed into a material force for progress, as the General Strike of December 11 showed. This struggle will continue in companies and workplaces for better wages and the withdrawal of the Labour Package, highlighted by the national demonstration called by the CGTP-IN for February 28 in Lisbon and Porto. This struggle will develop with the action of the people and youth in defence of the National Health Service, Public Schools, public services and the right to housing, as well as in defence of Peace and in solidarity with the peoples.

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Together with the development of political initiatives and efforts to strengthen the Party, the Central Committee of the PCP calls on organisations, Party and JCP members, workers, democrats and patriots to commit themselves to the struggle to uphold rights and improve living conditions, against right-wing politics, for a patriotic and left-wing alternative, with the values of April in the future of Portugal, and reaffirms, at this time when the nature of capitalism is becoming increasingly evident, the topicality of the communist ideal and project.