Mobility. Recently, this has been the main topic on the agenda of the Ecological Party of the Greens (PEV) – a party that, like the CDS-PP, disappeared from the Assembly of the Republic (AR) in last January’s parliamentary elections. The party launched the “mobility is a right” campaign and has promoted several initiatives around this theme.
What is now impossible is for these ideas to be given a parliamentary translation, in the form of bills. In January, as a result of the election failure of the CDU (the PEV-PCP coalition), which rose from 12 to six deputies, ecologists were unable to elect a single deputy. In those elections, the party occupies fourth place on the CDU list in Lisbon (Mariana Silva) and third in Setúbal (José Luís Ferreira). But the Communist-led coalition elected only two deputies in Lisbon and another two in Setúbal. Heloísa Apolónia, the longest-serving PEV deputy (28 years old, from 1991 to 2019), was again not elected leader in Leiria (she had always been elected by Setúbal before).
The PEV has left parliament and now, as the leader Mariana Silva – who was a deputy in the 2019-2022 legislature – explains to DN, the path has been to boost local initiatives “by leveraging the connections of the party with CDU elected officials in local stream”. “We are on the street,” he assures, talking about recent initiatives in Porto and Alentejo (these are related to the problems of water and intensive agriculture). “And because we don’t have that parliamentary voice now, we’ve embarked on a more local work, which is also more demanding.” The party has local elected officials in municipalities such as Sintra, Braga, Paredes de Coura, Portalegre or Lisbon. And one of the ways it chose to keep itself alive in the public space – despite a drastic reduction in media coverage, as happened with the CDS – was the publication of open letters to officials (local or national) on very concrete issues affecting the population.
Now that the party is out of the AR, the question can be asked: can the PCP take advantage of projects that belonged to the PEV in the Assembly of the Republic and resubmit them by making them their own? No, “this has not happened,” although “the PCP’s agenda is very similar to that of the PEV,” the leader says. Which, at the urging of the DN, recalls the points marked by the party during the period when it was part of the ‘geingonça’: the operation to eradicate asbestos from public buildings (especially schools); the incentive plan for family farming (“that doesn’t get off the ground”), the energy-saving plans in schools. He also recalls that in SO2021 it was agreed to conduct a study on light pollution in cities (cities whose excessive public lighting disrupts biodiversity, namely in terms of insects) but nothing happened.
And now, how does the ENP get there without a parliamentary presence? Mariana Silva seems to have studied the answer, saying that “the environment will miss the Greens in parliament”. “Little has been said about the environment”he says, saying that topics such as lithium exploration, the installation of photovoltaic installations in protected landscapes and the financing of intensive agriculture by the PRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan) have been kept out of parliamentary interests, despite the presence of deputies who claim to be ecologists , such as those of BE, PAN or Rui Tavares, from Livre.
And can the PEV aspire to have parliamentary representation again in the next legislature?
The truth is that it depends on the PCP. The PEV disappeared from the Assembly due to the electoral failure of the CDU, a failure attributed to the PCP, the dominant party in the CDU coalition. So a return essentially depends on the ability of communists to demonstrate (or not) return to electoral growth, with those arguing that it is possible, but also those predicting that the decline is irreversible.
Moreover, the PEV never presented itself autonomously in elections, neither at the national nor at the local level. The party was founded in 1982 (with the then name of the Portuguese Ecologist Movement – “Os Verdes” Party). The following year, they formally integrated the coalition that led the PCP at the time, the APU (Aliança Povo Unido), which would make way for the current CDU (Coalição Democrática Unitário) in 1987. From 1983 to 1987, deputy “Verde” was on the PCP list as an independent. From 1987 the acronym PEV appears and has two deputies and thus forms its own group. And this has always been its representation, despite the PCP’s progressive loss of electoral weight. Now the coalition remains formally in existence. But in the AR, only one party represents it, the PCP.
Will the party be able to rehearse an independence movement from the PCP and vote in seclusion for the first time in the next parliamentary election? This is a question to which Mariana Silva seems to have another rehearsed answer: “Everything is negotiable.” And when? At the party’s next national convention in 2024.
The existence of the PEV – and its umbilical cord connection to the PCP ever since – is, for the essayist and university professor Viriato Soromenho Marques, one of the reasons why the existence of a “Green” party with a large electoral dimension has never happened in Portugal. as is the case, for example, in Germany.
Soromenho Marques – who headed Quercus from 1992 to 1995 – recalls that in the mid-1980s, many Portuguese ecologists discussed the possibility of founding a party. But “the PCP anticipated” – and to the professor there is no doubt that the PEV was a creation of the PCP (because the communists, not wanting to vote alone, had to create a party to form a coalition with).
So, the ecological movement suffered from this problem of “sticking to the PCP”. A collage that also caused controversy in the PEV itself, such as that of António Gonzalez (founder) or Maria Santos (deputy), people who, ironically, “left the PEV as soon as they became ecologists”. Given that BE, PAN and Livre claim to be ecologists, the ‘green’ representation in the AR today is seven deputies (out of 230). More than PCP (six) but less than IL (eight) or Chega (12).
Source: DN
