Joana Mortagua believes that Katarina Martins is “leaving because she wants to” and because she thinks “it’s the best thing” for BE.

Blocist MP Joana Mortagua on Tuesday thanked Katharina Martins for a decade at the head of the party, given that she “left because she wants to” because she thought it was “the best thing for the Bloc”, while MEP Marisa Matias praised the party’s strengthening. .

Katharina Martins announced at a press conference Tuesday that she would be leaving the BE leadership at the National Convention in May, declining to name names for her succession but making it clear she took the decision calmly, knowing there were people in the party willing to do so.

“Katherine is coming to the end of the decade at the head of the Bloc, maintaining the support of a single party. She leaves because she wants to, because she thinks it’s best for Blok. We are so grateful to her for that the only assurance is that we will continue to count on her. Thank you,” MP Joana Mortagua said in a post on the social network Twitter.

Also via Twitter, former MEP candidate and MEP Marisa Matias took the opportunity to thank the lockdown coordinator, whom she considered “a strong, charismatic, courageous and generous leader, and also a dear friend,” for the work of the lockdown.

“He helped us to go through a difficult path and strengthen the party. We will continue on all the paths that need to be taken with whoever comes and wants to join. Thank you, Katarina,” said Marisa Matias.

From Brussels also came the words of José Gusmão, another BE MEP, who stated that Katarina Martins “took over the leadership of BE at one of her most difficult moments.”

“In 2015, he challenged Costa, which allowed him to remove the right from power and restore the rights that the absolute majority is now destroying. No goodbyes. We know that Katarina remains with us and with the people,” he stressed. .

At this morning’s press conference, Katarina Martins said that the decade she led BE was a period of “wins and losses”, explaining that “what has changed now” is “the instability of the absolute majority.” that the crisis, “multiplied within the government and clashed with popular struggles, is a sign of the end of the political cycle.”

“In Block, there are not very long periods of functions such as coordination. What made me decide at this point is to think that right now the Blok should start preparing for the political changes that are already in place,” he said.

Katarina Martins has been at the forefront of the party’s fortunes since November 2012, at that time in partnership with João Semedo when they were elected coordinators of the Bloc de Esquerdes, and then in an unprecedented “two-headed” leadership, a model abandoned two years later. , at the next national convention in 2014.

That year, the party was led by six coordinators: Pedro Soares, Pedro Filipe Soares, Joana Mortagua, Adelino Fortunato, Nuno Moniz, and Catarina Martins, who was then a BE representative.

At the big meeting of the party in 2016, the position of press secretary ceased to exist and the figure of the national coordinator, held by Katarina Martins, was renewed.

At the XI National Congress in November 2018, the list of Catarina Martins, Pedro Filipe Soares and Marisa Matias, presented consistently and without major changes, was successfully elected and won 70 out of 80 seats in the National Council.

At the last major meeting of the party in May 2021, the list of the current leadership won 54 of the 80 seats in the BC National Bureau, which has become more divided, losing 16 seats compared to 2018.