The CDU campaign covers 10 districts and focuses on contact with the population

The CDU’s campaign for the legislative elections will cover 10 constituencies between February 25 and March 8, with a special presence in Lisbon and Setúbal and an emphasis on direct contact with local populations.

According to the electoral program of the Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU), composed of PCP and PEV, eight of the 13 days designated for the official electoral campaign include constituencies in Lisbon (February 26 and 29 and March 3, 5). and 7) and Setubal (February 27 and 28 and March 3, 6 and 7).

In addition to focusing most effectively on these two districts, the CDU campaign will also pass through the following districts: Porto, Leiria, Faro, Évora, Beja, Santarem, Coimbra and Braga. Contact with the public or workers, in addition to parades, will be present on most campaign days.

Although the CDU caravan will hit the road this Saturday, the official campaign period determined by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) does not begin until Sunday.

This Saturday the agenda is focused on the district of Évora and includes lunch in Avis (district of Portalegre) – the communist “bastion” where it won 30.8% in the 2022 elections – a visit to Évora in the afternoon for applications with the new central hospital Alentejo and dinner in Montemor o Novo.

The first official day of the campaign, Sunday, is filled with the only election event in the city of Porto: the rally in Rivoli.

The closure will also take place in the north, on March 8, with stops in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto and finally a rally in Braga, the constituency in which the 2022 legislative campaign ended and where the CDU elected a deputy for the last time. in 2015.

In 2022, the coalition elected a total of six deputies – two in Lisbon, two in Setubal, one in Porto and one in Beja – representing a drop from the 12 mandates of the Assembly of the Republic received in 2019.

The campaign for the March 10 elections also marks the debut of PCP Secretary General Paulo Raimundo in an electoral initiative since he succeeded Jerónimo de Sousa in the communist leadership.

In an interview with Lusa, Paulo Raimundo highlighted the areas of labor law, wages, housing and health care as priorities for agreements, demonstrating an openness to rapprochement with the left as well as confidence in the growth of the CDU.

“We don’t have a quantitative target, but one of the contributions that our people and workers need is to bring back MPs to us, especially those we lost in 2022,” he said.