PAN spokesperson Ines de Souza Real said this Monday that the party wants to elect an MEP again in the next European elections on June 9 and restore representation in the European Parliament.
“We leave with great hope for this electoral act, because, unlike elections to the national parliament, for Europe every vote matters and there is no waste of votes. We can all help elect the PAN voice to the European Parliament, which is the only political party in Portugal that represents not only animals, but also nature, as well as human and social rights,” said the PAN leader.
Ines de Souza Real spoke to journalists at the Constitutional Court of Lisbon, where the list of PAN candidates was delivered.
Together with the head of the list, Pedro Fidalgo Marques, the sole PAN deputy defended that Europe cannot “waste what is the next cycle of investment at the level of community funds” and said that it is necessary to “ensure that Portugal has this ecological transition and that will have a green , a fair, sustainable economy, both socially and environmentally.”
“And that is why we believe and call on everyone who follows us at home to elect PAN again to the European Parliament, because this will be the only way to show concern for both animals and nature, because there is no other way a political force does it” , he said.
Also speaking to journalists, the head of the PAN list said that he was “honored to nominate himself” and noted that “these European elections are extremely important because the decisions taken in Europe increasingly affect life on a daily basis ” “Portugal Citizens’ Day”
Pedro Fidalgo Márquez was confident that “the people who voted for PAN in 2019” will “continue to trust PAN and that these people will join all the other people who believe that the cause of the people, the cause of animals, environmentalists must have a place in the European Parliament.”
Asked about the PAN elected in 2019, who became an independent after quitting the party, the leader said he was “seriously committed to the cause of PAN” and assured that he would “work and speak out for all these causes.”
“This is the commitment with which I go into this election,” he said.
Pedro Fidalgo Márquez said that “there is still a lot to be done in terms of animal welfare” as well as on an environmental level.
“We need to be much more ambitious in the green pact, pushing forward carbon neutrality targets in Europe. We cannot lose a single centimeter of forest in Europe,” he said.
In the last European elections, in May 2019, the People-Animals-Nature party managed to be elected for the first time, gaining 5.08% of the vote (168,501 ballots).
About a year later, in June 2020, MEP Francisco Guerreiro left the party due to “political differences” with the leadership then led by André Silva, and served the remainder of his term as an independent candidate.