To all the visitors, to those who never miss a Festival, to the many who have come for the first time, to those who have returned, welcome.
A big greeting to each and every one of you, workers in this collective construction that is the Avante! Festival.
Allow me to greet the artists, the sportspeople, all those who make the Festival happen and keep it running.
A special greeting to the youth and the Portuguese Communist Youth, who are the living expression of this Festival that they have made their own.
Tomorrow we will be there in the struggle for a better life, for which we leave from here more confident and stronger.
And next year, we will meet here again, on September 4, 5 and 6, for the 50th. anniversary of your Festival, an expression of joy, solidarity, peace and struggle.
The Festival of April and its people, the Festival of culture, hope, freedom and democracy.
While there are those who use demagoguery, hypocrisy, despair and fear as their weapons, here we affirm the courage to face difficult times.
While there are those who spread hatred and do everything they can to divide favouring capital, here we build unity, regardless of skin colour, nationality or religious beliefs.
While there are those who want to propagate and prolong the business of death, here we fight against war and those in favour of it.
Here we affirm our respect for the rights and sovereignty of peoples and the principles of the United Nations Charter.
Here we do not hesitate for a second in defending Peace and solidarity, goals that we share with the dozens of international delegations that are here with us and whom we fraternally welcome.
Thank you for your presence, this Festival is also your Festival.
Take back from the Festival solidarity with the struggles of your peoples, and the commitment that you can count on the PCP to strengthen the international communist and revolutionary movement and to broaden the anti-imperialist front.
We live in a world in turmoil, in change, where serious threats to Humanity are also on the rise.
US imperialism and its allies, particularly NATO and the EU, even with their contradictions, will spare no means to halt their decline and impose their dictates on the world.
Trump, an expression of the system and a tool at its service, wants to dominate, subjugate and turn everything into a business deal, as can be seen in the horse-trading around the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
While bowing to customs tariffs, the European Union has decided to spend billions of euros of its peoples’ money to buy weapons from the US – the business of death in all its splendour.
But despite the blackmail, sanctions, blockades and interference, despite the ongoing war and crimes, the peoples are resisting and fighting for their rights and sovereignty.
From here we salute the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.
Palestine is not alone; it can count on a persistent solidarity movement that is expressed throughout the world, including in Israel.
Palestine has our solidarity, the solidarity of the Portuguese people, of the youth, which is so committedly and heartfeltly expressed in the Festival and which will continue on September 16, in Lisbon and, among other actions, will be strongly affirmed in the demonstrations on November 29 – International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – in Lisbon and Porto.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the ongoing genocide at the hands of the Zionist regime of Israel, with the shameful support of the United States of America and the European Union.
The Portuguese Government must immediately and unconditionally recognise the State of Palestine with the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, as determined by UN resolutions.
With the courage of the Palestinian people and the solidarity of all of us, Palestine will prevail!
We salute the workers and peoples who resist, struggle and advance, challenging the imperialist order; in a world where important processes and multilateral cooperation are developing, and where China is playing a significant role.
From here we send a strong embrace of solidarity to Cuba and its Revolution, an embrace that extends to Bolivarian Venezuela and the Venezuelan people – Cuba and Venezuela which, like many other countries, are the target of violent imperialist action.
We salute the Sahrawi people and their struggle for national liberation.
We salute the brother peoples of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe for achieving their independence in a struggle that converged with that of the Portuguese people, who defeated fascism and colonialism.
We salute the 80th.anniversary of the victory over Nazi-fascism, with the just recognition of the resistance of the peoples, the role of the Soviet Union and its people, as well as that of China, which, with the sacrifice of millions of lives, were decisive in liberating Humanity from Nazi-fascist barbarism and Japanese militarism.
We salute the Vietnamese people on the 80th. anniversary of the proclamation of their homeland's independence and the 50th. anniversary of their victory over US imperialism.
Examples, among many others, of heroic resistance.
Peoples are not doomed to exploitation and wars, to capitalism and imperialism.
The peoples and workers have a historic mission to build, with their strength, unity and struggle, a society free from exploitation and oppression.
A struggle that we are also waging here in our Country.
We are confronted with a policy that serves economic groups and multinationals, submits to the orders and hypocrisy of the European Union, the US and NATO, and which surrenders national sovereignty, weakens the productive apparatus and jeopardises the Country's development.
A policy of confrontation with the majority, with workers, children, youth, women, pensioners, students, artists, micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and farmers, researchers and scientists, firefighters, security forces, the military, a policy that uses immigrants and the most disadvantaged as scapegoats for its disastrous consequences.
A policy that serves a minority who think they own everything and who are never questioned about their nationality, language, religion or culture, and for whom there are always more means, public resources and tailor-made laws.
A policy decided in the offices of big business and now implemented by a PSD/CDS government that looks more like a business agency for economic groups.
In a country in tatters, every problem is a new business opportunity.
Every service that is closed or irregular, every doctor, nurse or technician who is missing, every euro diverted from the National Health Service to economic groups is yet another incentive for the business of illness.
Faced with the drama of keeping or accessing housing, the government guarantees more support and benefits for banks and real estate funds, the very same ones that placed the Country in this situation.
Everything is business: TAP, CP's [Railways] most profitable services, ports, motorways, childhood, old age, healthcare, housing, education, science, art, culture and even wildfires is business.
It is the business of the forest, of appetites for small lands, it is the mega-business of aircraft rentals.
The Country does not need this horse-trading, what the Country needs is what has long been decided on how to prevent and combat fires.
Witness what we have come to, and it is not just the annual drama of fires, it is also the situation in various areas, some of which are critical.
The Country's problem is not that there is more and more State intervention, as claimed by the Mileis we have here, always expecting maximum benefits from the State.
The problem is the dismantling of public structures, it is having a State that, by choice of successive governments, has fewer and fewer resources and less capacity to respond, with services and structures handed over to private interests, to the logic of profit, sacrificing what is essential, starting with critical sectors of maintenance, prevention and safety.
The Country is becoming increasingly fragile and is in the hands of economic and multinational groups, with consequences that could and must be prevented and avoided.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
Their business cannot be the degradation of the Country and our lives.
Those who are nostalgic for the days of the troika reaffirm that the country is better off.
Yes, a small part of the country is better off.
The banks, the economic groups, the multinationals, those who live off wheeling and dealing and large-scale corruption, for them life is good, but for the Country of those who work, those who have worked all their lives, for the country of the youth and those who seek a better life here, for them life is difficult.
They would like the people, the workers and the youth to return to the days of “eat and shut up”, but they are very much mistaken.
They may have powerful means at their disposal, they may dominate the media and pollute social networks, they may even have an institutional framework that facilitates their objectives, but here no one shuts up.
We do not accept a Country of low wages and pensions, of irregular working hours, of precariousness, of two or three jobs to pay the bills, of poverty and emigration, especially among the young people.
We will not remain silent in the face of closed emergency wards, desperate mothers and children being born without safe conditions.
We do not accept that another school year should begin with high costs for families, without the necessary teachers, without places in nurseries and pre-schools, and with fewer students in higher education.
We will not resign ourselves to the deliberate shortage of doctors, nurses, teachers, technical assistants, operational assistants, magistrates, security forces and services, and so many others lacking in public services.
We will not accept yet another cut in corporate tax for big capital to further fatten its €22 million daily profits.
We will not accept privatisations, public-private partnerships and the Country being sold off piece by piece.
We will not remain silent in the face of millions and millions in profits and dividends resulting from the wealth created here and being transferred abroad.
We will not accept that in a Country with two million people living in poverty, including 300,000 children, millions of low-wage workers, the majority of pensioners with very low pensions, where the cost of living and the price of food are rising every day, the government's main option, supported, it should be said, by other parties, is to yield the country to the arms trade.
The Country does not need the madness of war.
Five per cent of GDP per year is a lot of housing, a lot of hospitals, a lot of nurseries and care homes, a lot of schools and transport.
Five per cent of GDP per year is a lot of culture, a lot of people lifted out of poverty, a lot of populated inland areas, a lot of forest and protected territory. This is where the country needs to invest its resources.
This disastrous choice reveals the situation we have reached, where each instrument of the system plays its assigned role.
Now it is the turn of the PSD-CDS to govern and execute.
The Liberal Initiative is the ideological racing hare, Chega is the factory of lies, demagoguery, and shouting that we know, and it is the instrument that the system has created to try to accelerate its objectives.
It is the can opener for the worst of right-wing politics.
And in the midst of all this, we have the PS jostling with Chega to see who is the government's closest ally, to see who is the favourite partner for a State Budget that we already know will be a tool to accelerate the dismantling of the National Health Service, the attack on public services, privatisations, the transfer of public resources to economic groups and the maintenance of a Country of low wages and pensions.
No one can say they are being misled.
Right-wing politics is not fought by giving it a hand, but by stopping it in its tracks.
And the PS, as always, seems willing to lend the government a helping hand.
As for the PCP, we will be here to fight it tooth and nail.
There is so much submission to the interests of big employers that only the worst can be expected for those who work.
And the worst is here, in a labour package that goes against the workers.
They sell the liberal agenda as if it were the last biscuit in the packet, but all that comes out of that packet is more exploitation, even more wage compression, even more precariousness, even more hours and longer working hours, even easier dismissals. We cannot accept another setback in our lives and rights.
We are facing a declaration of war against the workers, especially the youth and women, and there is only one possible response to this – to fight.
Fight for better wages, fight for a permanent job and a permanent contract, fight for decent working hours and more time to live, fight for a reduction in working hours for all mothers and fathers, so that they can watch their children grow up.
In the face of calls and actions aimed at division and conflict between workers, those who work must respond with unity.
The government can agree whatever it wants, with whomever it wants and wherever it wants, but its package will receive the response it deserves from the workers and can be defeated in companies, in workplaces and on the streets.
And we will be on the streets on September 20, in Lisbon and Porto, responding to the call from CGTP-IN, the great trade union confederation, which we salute from here.
We will be there in this struggle for all, and in particular for the youngest.
A struggle that is developing on various fronts and in various sectors, a struggle that is the engine of History.
We are not doomed to impoverishment, war and loss of sovereignty.
Portugal is not a province of the EU, Portugal is not an appendage of the US or NATO.
Portugal is a sovereign Country with almost 900 years of History, where the people have always found the strength to overcome difficulties, a people who conquered and reconquered their independence, defeated fascism and freed themselves from war.
A people who opened the doors of April and, through struggle, enshrined one of the most advanced constitutions in the world, our Constitution, which in a few months will be 50 years old and which, despite being mutilated, contains the answers to the problems we face.
Let each one take into their own hands the political project of the Constitution and each of the rights it enshrines.
This is also what is at stake in the elections for President of the Republic, and this is what makes António Filipe's candidacy indispensable and irreplaceable.
António Filipe is the candidate of the workers, the people, the youth and all those who, regardless of their political or party affiliations, identify with the Constitution and a Portugal that is just, sovereign and developed.
Supporting António Filipe means fighting against regression and paving the way for a better life, as enshrined in the Constitution.
On October 12, we will have local elections.
Allow me to send a warm greeting to all the candidates and activists of the CDU, this great force of work, honesty and competence, this united and popular front.
A salute to the commitment, effort and militancy that enabled widespread electoral participation in all municipalities on the Continent and in Madeira, in the vast majority of the Azores and in 1,570 parishes.
This united and popular front brings together the PCP, the Ecologist Party “The Greens”, the Democratic Intervention Association, but also many independents who see in the CDU the strength to defend the interests of the people in every neighbourhood, parish and municipality.
To all we convey warm greetings.
CDU’s slates include more than twelve thousand candidates without party affiliation, independents who are not mere figureheads here, but rather protagonists and builders of this project that is theirs.
Here, we do not disguise ourselves as so-called independent slates, nor do we sign agreements without coherence.
Here we are the CDU, the force of work, honesty and competence.
Like no others, we hold our heads high, with a distinctive project in Local Government, with proven results and work accomplished, fulfilling the commitments we have made to the people.
And from here we make an appeal: regardless of your past voting choices, give strength to the CDU.
Come with the will to build, participate, and intervene. You are all welcome and needed.
The CDU needs you, and each of your communities needs you.
Let us make the local elections a great journey of enlightenment and mobilisation for a better life.
Contact by contact, conversation by conversation, we will confirm the CDU's majorities and compete for new majorities and more elected representatives.
CDU's result is the result of the workers, the populations and the youth.
The coming months will be very demanding.
These are electoral battles, but also mass struggles and political initiatives.
We will be here, taking the initiative on the central issues at stake.
We will be here fighting the labour package, demanding answers to the central issue of a general increase in wages;
We will be here for an increase in pensions and to ensure that 40 years of work and contributions guarantee access to retirement without penalties;
We will be here to guarantee the present and future of the Country with the implementation of the rights of children and parents, starting with the creation of a public network of nurseries with the necessary vacancies;
We will be here to save the National Health Service, for the valorisation of careers and professions, and hiring and retaining professionals;
We will be here for public schools, for the valorisation and hiring of teachers; for more public student accommodation and more social action in schools, and we will not fail to fight against the increase in tuition fees;
We will be here for investment in public housing and to confront the banks and their profits;
We will be here to control rents and ensure the stability of rental contracts;
We will be here to tackle the brutal increase in the cost of living, demanding what is necessary: the regulation of prices for basic necessities;
We will be here to demand an end to the genocide and for the recognition of the State of Palestine.
We will not hesitate in our proposals, and we will be there in the workplace, in schools, on the streets, in every struggle.
The situation is demanding, and the bend is tight, but here is the Party.
This Portuguese Communist Party is aware of its unwavering strength and determination and wants more militants so that it has greater capacity to intervene, transform and mobilise for the life that the people are entitled to.
This Party's greatest wealth lies in each and every one of its militants and friends, in their dedication, effort and unparalleled commitment to the cause of the workers, the people and youth.
This Party is what it is because we are all part of this great collective.
A Party with great conviction in its project, connected to the masses and to life, which does not resign itself to the difficult reality of the people and workers, a Party that is here to continue transforming life.
A Party that does not dilute its ideals and project, and that is the greatest guarantee of the value it places, like no other, on unity and convergence in everything that is beneficial to the workers and the people.
Convergence does not mean creating illusions or false solutions. Convergence means responding to the problems of those who live and work in our Country, it means resisting and moving forward.
Fight for your lives.
Fight for your rights.
Break with the politics that endanger the rights, living conditions and future of the Country.
Make your voices heard. Let us intensify the struggle and promote social and political convergence among all men, women and youth who are willing to break with the politics that misgovern the country and embrace the alternative that is needed.
The alternative at the service the Country, at the service your lives, the patriotic and left-wing alternative.
This is the convergence that is needed, this is the convergence to which we are committed.
Fight with this Party linked to the youth, to their desires and aspirations, with this Party that counts on the JCP.
You are not the future, you are the present of the Party.
The success of your 13th. Congress in November will be the success of our Party.
Here is the challenge: take into your hands this ideal and this new world that is yours, embrace the struggle against oppression, the plundering of resources, war, hunger and exploitation, fight against Capitalism.
With your own way of being, your energy, creativity, audacity and strength, build with the PCP, the Party of the youth, in every school, university, neighbourhood and workplace, your path, the path of democracy and socialism.
Our struggle follows the great river of history of those who have fought, over the centuries, often with their own lives, for a better world.
We are the bearers of hope, that hope that is built every day in every struggle for wages, for rights, for children, for access to healthcare, for housing, for peace.
United in this struggle, in this dream, in this ideal.
We are this Party, indispensable and irreplaceable to the Country, to the workers, to the people and to the youth.
The Party that does not resign itself to the exploitation of man by man, and that confronts the power and interests of capital.
The Party of resistance, of combat and of victory over fascism, the Party of April and its revolutionary transformations.
The Party of courage, the Party of joy, a joy that is only possible for those who know that the ideal is beautiful and the cause they fight for is just.
The struggle continues!
Long live internationalist solidarity!
Long live the Portuguese Communist Youth!
Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!
