The CDS announced in a statement yesterday that the political return, in the form of a programmatic convention, will take place on September 6 at the national headquarters of the party, in Lisbon, in the presence of former centrist leaders Paulo Portas, Assunção Cristas and Manuel . Monteiro, to update the Declaration of Principles and “define the electoral cycle” in Madeira and with the European elections coming up. Among the living ex-presidents of the CDS, José Ribeiro e Castro and Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, there are absences that the current Christian Democratic leader considers indirect.
Nuno Melo emphasized in a conversation with DN that the update of the CDS’s Declaration of Principles, the message that the party bases on its Christian Democratic origins, is the highlight of this entry into the political year that is now beginning. “For us, the reformatting of the Declaration of Principles is very important, to some extent as a historical element,” because the document “dating back to the 1970s still talks about decolonization and about joining the EEC. [Comunidade Económica Europeia, que antecedeu a União Europeia]. Therefore, it is a political statement that shows this ancient founding father of democracy, experienced in many governments, but it is precisely in this new political cycle that we want to show evidence of the party being formatted or reformatted for the challenges of the 21st century. century”, emphasizes the president of CDS.
It is therefore this ‘reformatting’ that qualifies the return as a programmatic convention. The drafting of the proposal to update the CDS’s Declaration of Principles was in the hands of lawyer and former centrist deputy António Lobo Xavier, whom Nuno Melo considers to be one of the leading centrist figures at this meeting, along with Portas, Cristas and Monteiro. “We are kicking off with a lot of strength and with a lot of mobilization and a lot of faith in what we will be able to do,” explained the president of the CDS, without losing sight of the fact that this convention is also “a political signal to the outside world” . About the absence of former party leaders José Ribeiro e Castro and Francisco Rodrigues do Santos, Nuno Melo says that he does not give any political lecture. “I just have to express or testify to what depends on me. And what depends on me is this sign of reconciliation, of openness in which everyone fits, and I consider the justifications for not being able to attend as good and sincere,” says the centrist leader. “I really believe they won’t be there because they can’t be there for personal reasons,” concludes Nuno Melo.
“Fragmented Right”
When asked whether the right in Portugal is incomplete due to the absence of the CDS in parliament, Nuno Melo prefers to see it as ‘fragmented’. “The CDS is not in the Assembly of the Republic, but the CDS leads municipalities,” recalls the Christian Democratic leader, adding that the party is still “in the European Parliament, where, for example, neither Chega nor the Liberal Initiative sit” . Projecting the future, Nuno Melo sees the regional elections in Madeira later this year and the European elections in 2024 as “the great catalyst for what follows”.
Source: DN
