The PCP salutes all those who exercised their right to vote today, giving expression to a significant turnout in the elections, and extends a word of solidarity to all those who did so in particularly difficult conditions due to the consequences of the storms.
A significant turnout that defeated André Ventura in the second round of the elections for President of the Republic, reflecting the Portuguese people's rejection of his candidacy and the reactionary and retrograde project he represents.
This defeat is even more significant given that, over the last few years, André Ventura and his concepts have benefited from widespread promotion, which intensified during these elections.
The PCP salutes all those who, with their vote, prevented someone like André Ventura from becoming President of the Republic. Someone who espouses an agenda dictated by reactionary, retrograde and anti-democratic criteria and concepts, in clash with the Constitution of the Republic, committed to right-wing politics, sharing many of the current government's choices and supporting the interests of big capital.
While welcoming positively the defeat of André Ventura's candidacy, which the PCP actively called for, we believe that the negative impact that the widespread and systematic dissemination of backward and reactionary concepts can have on large sections of the population should not be underestimated.
Retrograde and reactionary concepts that must be firmly denounced and fought, such as the insistence on a discourse based on lies; the encouragement of xenophobic and racist views; calls for division and discrimination; the instrumentalization of justified dissatisfaction and discontent, concealing the right-wing policy that is at its root; the attack on April, the Constitution and democratic values and rights.
The President of the Republic, António José Seguro, must remain faithful to his oath to uphold, comply with and enforce the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, rather than supporting a policy that violates it.
As we have always pointed out, his repeated statements about cooperating with the Government or his repeated commitment to creating conditions of stability for the continuation of the current governance with its policy aligned with the interests of big capital are negative.
The PCP will determine its institutional relationship with the President of the Republic by clearly and openly affirming constitutional values and demanding their compliance, fully aware that the affirmation of each and every one of the rights enshrined in the Constitution, the demand for their respect and compliance, as well as the change and rupture essential to overcoming national problems, demand the determined action of the workers and people, the expansion of the mass struggle and the convergence of democrats and patriots.
The solutions to the Country's problems demand a different course of action. The struggle of the workers and people is an essential factor and condition for halting setbacks, asserting rights, and building a different policy. 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.
The PCP will take decisive action and take the initiative on the concrete problems of the population, workers and youth, at the outset to guarantee workers' wages and rights, incomes, the restoration of homes, equipment and infrastructure, the restoration of productive capacity and the re-establishment of economic and social life in the regions affected by the storms.
The PCP calls on the workers, population, youth, democrats and patriots to commit themselves to the struggle in defence of rights and for the improvement of living conditions, against the right-wing policy, for a patriotic and left-wing alternative, with the values of April in the future of Portugal.
Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!