Post-election ‘strategising’ led by Bloco de Esquerda
With Portugal’s left in uproar over the election results last Sunday, the strategising has begun – very much as happened in Spain last year – to try and oust the technical winners and wrestle back political power.
Bloco de Esquerda – a left-wing party with only 5 MPs in parliament – has led the call to arms, requesting meetings with PS Socialists (which has said it is willing), PCP communists (down to 3 MPs), LIVRE (4 MPs) and PAN (just one MP).
Together, the group represents 90 MPs (so far) in parliament. There is the possibility that this number will be increased when the results of the emigré constituencies come in on March 20. The left cannot hope to match the combined force of more right-leaning parties (AD’s 79 MPs this far, Iniciativa Liberal’s 8 and CHEGA’s 48 come to 135 on the opposite side), but in the simmering ‘outrage’ directed at CHEGA, the tactic is to seemingly ‘ignore’ that over a million voters used their votes to consolidate the party’s position as Portugal’s third political force.
In a video released last night, Bloco de Esquerda coordinator Mariana Mortágua argues that the left has to “seek maximum convergence in the defence of what is essential”
“Sunday’s elections changed the face of politics in this country. The results of AD and the rise of the extreme-right place Portugal under risk of retrocession and threaten social rights”.
According to Mortágua, the meetings the party means to have with PS, PCP, LIVRE and PAN, will analyse the result of the elections, and “debate the elements of convergence, not simply in an opposition to the government of the right, but in the construction of an alternative”
“Parties in the democratic field, ecological parties, parties of the left have an obligation to keep paths of dialogue open and seek convergences”, she said.
“We are not giving up on memory, the future, the welfare state or the goal of equality. We want to guarantee that, together, this year we will hold the biggest demonstrations to commemorate April 25,” she added.
As these plottings go on, the technical winners of last Sunday’s elections are also planning their strategies (see story to come), and intend to take Portugal’s new government forwards, irrespective of left-wing alternatives.
President Marcelo meantime is into his second day of hearing the parties with seats in parliament.
Yesterday he met with PAN, which musters only one MP, Inês Sousa Real. Ms Real was ‘critical’ of the president – suggesting he should not be undertaking this exercise before the results of the emigré constituencies are known, as potentially these could create a real tie between AD and PS.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
