Socialist leaders warn of threats to women’s rights from far right

PS Deputy Secretary General and President of the European Organization of Women Socialists this Friday saw the far right as a threat to women’s rights, gender equality and democracy, calling for a 2024 European mobilization.

These warnings were issued on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Women’s PES (Mulheres Socialistas Especiais, European Socialist Women), which is taking place this afternoon at the national headquarters of the PS in Lisbon.

João Torres retreated to April 25, 1974, and to the three points of the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA) program – decolonization, democratization and development – to warn that “democracy is in danger.”

“Democracy is absolutely fundamental for all of us socialists, but it is important to remember that democracy is under threat in many member states of the European Union and that even in Portugal we are seeing growth in the last elections. extreme right,” warned

João Torres believed that the country is also witnessing “a radicalization of the discourses of the democratic right, which are often close in their actions to the far right in what is the main content of their political message.”

The Deputy General Secretary of the PS appealed to “socialist women in Europe and Portugal” with an appeal to “close ranks in favor of promoting rights, equality” and in defense of democracy, recalling that next year marks the 50th anniversary of April. 25, 1974.

The Socialist leader defended the right of women to effectively rise to leadership positions, namely in party political organizations, and emphasized that although the PS has never had a woman at the head of the party, there are internal “collective efforts” to “advance, give, give, expand empower women to play more and more leadership roles.”

João Torres remained confident in the Socialists’ “great result” in the 2024 European elections. This idea was also abandoned by the president of the organization “European Socialist Women” Hungarian Zita Gurmai.

“If we do not respect the past, we will not have a future. That’s why I think it’s important to mention the name of one of the female founders of PS, Maria Barroso, who was not only a woman who was among the founders, but who was an inspiration to women for decades,” said the leader – a name that was also mentioned in the speech Joao Torres.

Zita Gurmay expressed “deep concern about the attacks from the far right on women’s rights, as well as on the LGBTI + community and the migrant community.”

In a speech titled “The Rise of Populism in Europe and the Risk of Violation of Women’s Rights”, MEP Maria Manuel Leitao Márquez said that “populist discourse has become ‘soft’, less visible, less demarcated and therefore very dangerous.” .

“And we, who in the European Parliament had the so-called sanitary thread of not negotiating or talking with the far right, I am afraid that we will lose it, or that this thread will no longer run there, at the end of the far right. , in the next European Parliament. And this normalization is also a risk to democracy,” he lamented.

According to the member of the European Parliament, for progressives “it is not enough to make a diagnosis”, but “to find an effective model for combating these movements within a democratic framework.”

“We cannot treat women’s rights as minority rights. (…) I have great respect for the rights of minorities (…), but when we talk about women’s rights, we are not talking about the rights of a minority, we are talking about talking about the rights of the majority, who have historically been mistreated,” he defended.

Maria Manuel Leitao Márquez also referred to the European Parliament elections next June, warning that “it will not be an easy election.”

“It was the PS in Portugal and a group of socialists in Europe who led this fight: but let’s be under no illusion, if we don’t mobilize more women and more men for our purposes, we won’t have the necessary electoral power to continue like this,” he concluded .

Elsa Pais, president of Socialist Women in Portugal, called for a “socialist and feminist Europe” and urged “by all means” to win next year’s European elections.