The parties will tell you what still needs to be done on April 25

Testimonies from the leaders of the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic on the 50th anniversary of April 25 were collected for the Revista de Aniversário do. CM, published March 19. This Thursday we remember what they said.

Mariana Mortagua
Left block

April 25th is not destined to be locked away in a history book. For those like me who were born later, April 25th is history, but it is also a promise that must be kept.

In a country with such inequality, we cannot afford to see one in ten workers unable to escape poverty. In a democracy that champions equality, we cannot accept that women have lower wages. In a country that knew how to build a social network and public schools, we will give no respite to those who want to destroy these pillars of democracy. In a country that has enshrined housing in the Constitution, we cannot accept that wages are not enough to pay for a house.

April 25th is a tool. In a country that has defeated dictatorship, this is a tool for defeating hatred and resentment. In a country that has built democracy, this is a tool in the fight for equality. This is the hope for the good life we ​​will build.

Rui Rocha
Liberal Initiative

In 1974, the oldest dictatorship in Western Europe was overthrown. In 1975, the Portuguese elected a Constituent Assembly by popular vote. In 1976, a democratic Constitution came into force and elections to the Assembly of the Republic were held. First we won freedom. Then we achieved democracy. Always April 25th.

However, what the country needs to develop is not the false development of socialist propaganda, but the one that is slowing down in Portugal. So that economic growth ceases to be a mirage. For the social elevator to work. So that young people do not need to emigrate to live with dignity. So that we can stop being choked by the largest tax burden in history. To finally get closer to the EU welfare indices.

Andre Ventura
He’s arriving

What else remains to be done for the 50th anniversary on April 25? Almost everything remains to be done. We need to have a more effective justice system, without interference from political power, as has been seen in recent months, able to operate effectively; there is a lack of motivated police capable of adequately ensuring national security; and there is a lack of what has always been lacking in recent decades, decent wages and pensions. This was our drama. This is why young people emigrate, why pensioners live in poverty. We need a shock of dignity in our country. Raising wages and pensions should not be seen as a cost, but as an urgent social investment to ensure compliance with April itself. Fifty years later, the level of poverty we still have should put us to shame.

Ines Souza Real
POT

April 25 has become synonymous with social progress, fundamental rights and democracy. But there is still a lot to be done to welcome April.

Although April 25 has become synonymous with progress in women’s rights, they are still underrepresented in key bodies and earn 13.1% less than men; despite the fact that April 25 is synonymous with democracy, a young person still has to wait until he turns 18 to be able to vote; despite the fact that April 25 is synonymous with the right to housing, a young person can only leave his parents’ home at the age of 29; Despite the fact that almost 50 years have passed since April 25 and we are today living in a climate emergency, we still have a model of urban construction that relies on concrete without restrictions and without respect for the environment and biodiversity.

But if April has not yet arrived, then it is in this dawn of hope and on this first day, full and pure, that we are also inspired to fight every day for rights not yet achieved, to improve people’s lives. , animals and nature.

Realizing that the state exists to serve the people, not the people to serve the state. Freedom and democracy – half a century ago, today and always.

Ruy Tavares
For free

No other day in the 900-year history of Portugal presents such a complete list of services as April 25: the morning woke up with dictatorship, censorship, colonial war, political police and prisoners of opinion, and by afternoon it was clear that all this had already passed or it will pass soon. April 25 commemorated the European country and pluralistic democracy. However, some essential elements of the promise of April 25 remained unfulfilled, of which I will only mention the main one: the persistence of poverty as a structural phenomenon in our country. Much progress has been made, but there is still a persistent prejudice that our country is poor and that a large part of its population has always lived and always will live in conditions of deprivation. The truth is that with appropriate government policies, as in other countries, poverty in our country can become a limited and specific phenomenon. With everyone’s desire, this should be the mission of the first years of the second half of the century on April 25.

Paulo Raimundo
PCP

We are happy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Revolution on April 25th. A revolution that is an affirmation of freedom, social liberation, sovereignty and national independence. A revolution that made possible great achievements that changed and shaped our collective lives. A revolution that came after a long journey of struggle by workers and people, in which the PKP was continuously present as a great force of Resistance to fascism, and then in the Revolution, which made a decisive contribution to the founding and construction of a democratic regime. “April is more of the future” because its achievements and liberation project carry the values ​​that guide the construction of the Portugal of today and tomorrow. Continuing April requires a break with right-wing politics that undermine what April represents. It is with respect for her legacy of achievement that we will pursue a fairer, more humane and more egalitarian society, affirming a patriotic and leftist project, a developed democracy, April values ​​in the future of Portugal.

Luis Montenegro
PSD

On the 50th anniversary of 25 April, the Portuguese have the right to ask whether the country is at the level of economic and social progress it should be at, taking into account the European context in which we have found ourselves for almost 40 years. years. The answer, unfortunately, seems obvious to me. Today, and perhaps more intensely than in recent decades, very pronounced inequalities persist in Portuguese society. Inequalities in access to areas essential to people’s lives, such as health, education and housing, are creating ever-widening gaps between those with and without economic potential. Inequalities in access to opportunity for thousands of young people who find no future in their country, and in growing pockets of poverty and exclusion that do not spare any generation, from children to the elderly. Yes, April is about to end, there is still a lot to do.

Pedro Nuno Santos
PS

This year marks half a century since April 25, 1974. During these half-century, Portugal has made a remarkable journey in politics, economics and society. We have gone from a poor and isolated country on the western edge of Europe to a member of the great family of prosperous and modern states that make up the European Union. We should be proud of the path our political community has traveled over these five decades.

Today the April values ​​are the same, but in the second decade of the 21st century the requirements are different. The task of the generations who are children of April is to honor its symbolic heritage and to renew our solutions to meet the expectations of those who, from work to housing, through education, health or culture, want to live and fulfill themselves in Portugal.

“April”, like the project of the Socialist Party, is always updated. We have to look at the path we have taken over the past 50 years and lay the foundations for the development and prosperity that we want to usher in the next 50 years.