A PAN spokesman on Tuesday defended the importance of aligning positions on rights issues that were “under threat”, but said a decision on possible left-wing alliances for local authorities required an internal assessment by the party.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with PAN at Livre headquarters to analyse the political situation and reflect on the 2025 local elections, Ines Souza Real stressed her party’s willingness to engage in dialogue to ensure that the country does not face “setbacks in human rights and fundamental rights” and in defence of democracy.
Facing the next electoral challenge, Ines Souza Real stressed that there would be a meeting of the party’s internal bodies to assess possible alliances, but that the party was ready “to dialogue and ensure a common dynamic in terms of” defending issues such as climate change, women’s rights or the LGBTI+ community.
“We must know how to preserve and respect the achievements of April 25 and ensure that progressive centrist parties, as well as moderate parties committed to human rights, do not in fact allow what those achievements were,” he added.
Asked about the possibility of the French legislature inspiring a possible left-wing agreement in Portugal that includes the PAN, Sousa Real felt it was hasty to draw such parallels, since “Portugal does not have the same parliamentary geometry” and the PAN has the mathematical possibility of being a decisive force in ensuring the viability of the next state budget.
“The responsibility does not fall on PAN or on the parties, which currently do not have, from a mathematical point of view, the ability to make the state budget viable or unfeasible. What is fundamental for us at the moment is to ensure that – this is a set of rights that are not hindered in any way, and we know that these rights are under threat,” he added.
Sousa Real also said, in relation to the words of Luis Montenegro, who said that only a vote of no confidence would lead to his removal from the government, that the Prime Minister “has rushed” and that he risks “not surviving” if this happens. Even a proposal for censorship is presented.
Rui Tavares of Livre said the meeting focused on uncertainty and “regression in the public space, in terms of public discourse, of certain values” that are dear to both sides.
He also drew attention to the debate on the quality of life of the Portuguese, who he said were “under great pressure at the local level”, citing the Lisbon municipality as a case of “very serious negligence” in living conditions and mobility.
The Livre spokesman also confirmed the party’s openness to an agreement extended to the left for the next local councils, stressing that PAN, even while saying it is “neither left nor right”, is part of a dialogue for rapprochement on issues of ecology and animal welfare.
The meeting between PAN and Livre on Tuesday was the second of four meetings between Rui Tavares’ party and left-wing parties, with the PCP still to meet (which will take place next Monday, the 15th) and the PS, the date of which has not yet been agreed.
After meeting with the Bloc de Esquerda, Livre and the blocs showed their willingness to move closer to the left in local elections next year, including in Lisbon, in order to defeat the current leader of the PSD/CDU-PP, led by Carlos Moedas.
On the part of the PCP, which has not yet met with Livre, the door to any municipal rapprochement with the PS is already closed.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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