Catarina Martins will be the head of the Left Bloc (BE) list in the European elections, the bloc coordinator, Mariana Mortágua, announced this Saturday at the end of a meeting of the party’s National Board.
“Catarina Martins is one of the leaders of the European left with the most experience and most recognition”, stated Mariana Mortágua.
The BE coordinator justifies the choice with the fact that Catarina Martins knows Portugal’s problems, but also “knows like few others the European context, the European political context, the functioning of European institutions, the different representatives and protagonists and parties on a scale European”.
“She is a person capable of articulating the left and left-wing parties on a European scale. Catarina Martins represents the strongest candidacy that the left can present in the European elections and that is why she will be the head of the Left Bloc list in these elections “, highlighted Mariana Mortágua.
The BE coordinator highlights the importance of the next European elections “in the fight against the extreme right and the affirmation of an alternative project for the left”.
The European elections in Portugal are scheduled for June 9 this year.
Catarina Martins, former leader of Bloco de Esquerda, is the first head of the list to be announced.
Mariana Mortágua named Catarina Martins at the end of a meeting of the BE National Board, which also analyzed the result of the legislative elections, in which the bloc won more votes, but kept the same five deputies.
Explanations for the “turn to the right” in the legislature
Regarding the March 10 elections, the leader of the Bloc admits that the party “did not fulfill its main and first objective of asserting an alternative to the left in Portugal, an alternative to the right”.
The legislative elections marked “a turn to the right, with a radicalization of the AD and the Liberal Initiative that was noted in the electoral campaign speech and with a very worrying growth of the extreme right, which is gaining many more mandates and votes”.
Mariana Mortágua pointed out several reasons for the growth of the far right. “We know that they have more and more support from economic elites, we know that they are an international expression with effects in several countries, they have the support and are part of a strategy of varied geopolitical interests with expressions in several countries, we know that they have the support and mobilization of important religious groups. These will be part of the explanation for the growth of the extreme right, they will not be the whole explanation”.
The BE coordinator also pointed out the responsibility to the government with a socialist majority, led by António Costa. “This undeniable turn to the right is also a reflection of the erosion of PS governance and, in particular, PS governance in a context of absolute majority in the last two years”, she highlighted.
Mariana Mortágua now promises a “determined, courageous and tireless opposition” to a future right-wing government.
On the left, he recalls that he invited PS, PCP, Livre and PAN to meetings, with the aim of being a “dialogue force” to seek “convergences in the opposition camp” and to “have a historic demonstration on the 25th of April”.
