This Monday, the BE coordinator defended the importance of dialogue between Portuguese left-wing parties in order to present a “programme for a break with the past”, as the New Popular Front did in France.
Speaking to reporters at the party’s headquarters, reacting to the results of the French elections, Mariana Mortágua said that whoever won the French elections followed a programme of “equality, solidarity” and “a serious fight against the far right”, which has parallels in Portugal with the political programme of the Bloc de Esquerda.
Mortágua stressed that the party wants to “open a dialogue with the left” in the name of a program that represents a “credible alternative”, as did the left-wing alliance in France that brought together socialists, communists, ecologists and the França Insubmissa party and which emerged victorious in the elections this Sunday.
The bloc’s leader also stated that the political program of the New Popular Front is a program of hope not only for France, but for all of Europe, drawing parallels with the national political situation.
According to the BE coordinator, the left front gave voters an alternative, beyond the “liberal project, the centrão project, which is the PSD project in Portugal, and neo-fascism, which is Marine Le Pen’s project, as is André Ventura’s project.”
Mortágua said that, in addition to the differences in the electoral systems between Portugal and France, there is a pattern that links the two countries, which is linked to the application by the “liberal center” of “a neoliberal program of destruction of social conditions, degradation of the social state and precarious working conditions.”
“This liberal center, which is Macron in France, which to a certain extent has been pursuing the liberal policies adopted by the PS in Portugal, is losing support, but is trying to combat this lack of support with a constant policy of blackmail, saying: ‘Vote for us because of the far right.’ This policy, this center, has failed very quickly in France as well,” he said.
The bloc leader also recalled the rise of the far right in France, which, despite the “different roots of the Portuguese far right”, grew “based on the same principles and the exploitation of the same hatred, the exploitation of immigration, racism, old problems that have not been resolved.”
In the second round of elections held on Sunday, the left-wing coalition (New Popular Front) won between 177 and 198 seats in the National Assembly, while French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance came in second with 152 to 169 seats.
The far-right National Union, which led in the first round, was in third place on Sunday, with between 135 and 143 deputies.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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