Hundreds of personalities sign a manifesto in support of Pedro Nuno Santos

Around 300 personalities from culture, sports, science and academia signed a manifesto of support for Pedro Nuno Santos as prime minister, warning that Portugal cannot give “a leap in the dark”.

“We cannot take a leap in the dark, nor go backwards. Fundamental rights and social achievements are never perpetual or irreversible. Everything that has been achieved can even be taken away from us”reads the manifesto of support for the PS secretary general.

Who signed the document?

Among other individuals, they subscribe to the documentto which the Lusa agency had access, Alice Vieira, Daniel Sampaio, Eduardo Barroso, Francisco Seixas da Costa, Graça Morais, Irene Pimentel, Joana Vasconcelos, Joshua Ruah, Laurent Filipe, Lena d’Água, Lito Vidigal, Manuela Machado, Maria de Medeiros, Maria do Céu Guerra and Miguel Lobo Antunes.

The list of subscribers also includes Richard Zimler, Rosa Mota, Rui Vieira Nery, Teresa Salgueiro, Tiago Guedes and Vital Moreira, for whom the next elections will be held “in a national, European and international time marked by serious dangers and threats, which gives even greater responsibility for the choices made and their consequences for the individual and collective future”.

“At this time of great moral, civic and political demand, the subscribers of this manifesto consider it their duty to publicly express a clear position on what is at stake in these elections. In their natural diversity of opinions, they do so out of an imperative of conscience and with independence of judgment, but consequently assuming their democratic convictions and the defense of the national interest”, they justify.

“PS governments changed the political climate”

During the PS governments led by António Costa, according to the signatories of the text, “dramatic situations were faced, such as the pandemic and the effects of wars on the economy, people’s lives and the international environment”.

“Having succeeded the PSD and CDS governments, during the troika period, which imposed measures of unprecedented social harshness, the PS governments changed the political climate, which was one of enormous tension, promoting civic coexistence and social peace, and reversed the austerity policies practiced in the name of an aggressive neoliberal ideological conviction, repeatedly stated”, they argue.

The subscribers of the manifesto consider that “the change of direction” with the governments of PS “guaranteed advances for the country that are today recognized at national and international level”.

“All the alternatives for change, which are now presented as possible, fail to respond fully and structurally to the challenges that the country faces. In many areas, and especially in the most decisive for a democracy like ours, they actually represent a setback. We cannot , in conscience, allow enemies of democracy and our freedoms to endanger our shared future. For all of this, we express, in the current circumstances, our support for the PS and its candidate for prime minister, Pedro Nuno Santos”, is added to the manifest.