Jeronimo says goodbye to PCP leadership The reasons for the departure of the PCP General Secretary at the age of 75 are due to health reasons. He will be replaced by Paulo Raimundo.

“Jeronimo de Souza, general secretary of the PKP, for the purpose of his own assessment, reflecting on the state of his health and the requirements corresponding to the duties he assumes, raised the issue of replacing him in his functions, while remaining a member of the Central Committee of the PKP,” the party said. .

The proposal for a new leader will be put to a vote at the meeting of the leadership of the PKP Central Committee on November 12, after the completion of the first day of the National Conference, which will be held in Seixal. .

Recall that in January of this year, Jeronimo de Souza was hospitalized for emergency surgery on the left internal carotid artery in the midst of the legislative election campaign, which was supposed to give the PS an absolute majority. The check will end with a disastrous result for the communists, who received 4.30% of the vote and only six deputies, half of the parliamentarians that the PKP had previously had.

Moreover, the Communists were one of the parties that overthrew António Costa’s first government by voting to reject the state budget for 2022, which led to early elections.

Curiously, it was Jeronimo who initiated, in October 2015, an unprecedented understanding on the part of the left, which led to the so-called trick – a parliamentary agreement between PS, PCP, BE and PEV to support a socialist minority government led by António Costa. . . .

A former steel company adjuster and trade union leader, in 1975, a year after joining the PKP, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and has remained a member of the communist bench in the Assembly of the Republic ever since.

Paulo Raimundo is the new general secretary of the party
Paulo Raimundo, who succeeded Jeronimo de Souza as Secretary General of the PKP, is 46 years old and is from Cascais. He attended the Faralhões Primary School in Sado parish in Setúbal and then Ana de Castro Osório in Bela Vista, also in Setúbal. According to information provided by the party, he worked as a carpenter, baker and cultural animator for the Association Crista da Mocidade in Bela Vista. Completed compulsory military service in Vila Nova de Gaia and Porto. He joined the Communist Youth in 1991 and in 1995 joined the ETUC headquarters. According to the party, he is “a militant, ready for the responsibility that binds the social dimension to communication, contact and identification with the workers and the masses of the people.”

The President celebrates “cooperation”
The President of the Republic emphasized the permanent “institutional cooperation” with Jeronimo de Souza. Marcelo Rebelo de Souza wished “happiness” to the new communist leader Paulo Raimundo.

Communists are falling in the polls
Jeronimo leaves PCP with a “minimum” party. In the latest Intercampus survey for CMpublished at the end of October, the Communists did not go beyond 2.6% of the vote.