“The people’s struggle for their rights”. The voice echoes. Words cross the valley. There are people who open their windows. Some leave the houses on the mountain, on either side of the slopes, to see where the slow preaching comes from. The barking of frightened dogs mixes together. “So that the people can have strength, we must give strength to the people of the highlands.” The voice comes from the distant viaduct. “Rights do not fall from the sky, rights are earned.” There is a man with a microphone in his hand. There’s another one parked next to the white car with all four turn signals on. The words echo for a few minutes. “Thank you very much for listening to me.”
That way of speaking and that tone sound familiar to me. I pick up my cell phone and call. The microphone man answers. “Edgar Silva?” I ask. The CDU candidate for the regional elections, who left the ‘priestship’ in 1997 and recently completed a doctorate in history (Vendaval de utopias. From socialism, social to political commitment in Portugal. The Catholics of the Revolution and the PCP), waves on the other side.
A few minutes later we reached the CDU propaganda vehicle via a viaduct further on. Edgar Silva is about to begin a new “preaching.” And my use of the word doesn’t bother him much. A smile. “It spreads justice and protests injustice,” he says, picking up the microphone connected to “a horn.”
The former PCP candidate for the 2016 presidential elections, born in the parish of São Martinho in Funchal, who spoke in 1996 about the “resort to disloyalty and lies” on the part of PSD Madeira, and called Jardim an “agitator ” mentioned, explains that “there is nothing here, not even a small playground. What is missing? Sewerage, access, public transport. It is difficult to have what is essential for a dignified life.” “Fortunately,” he adds before resuming the campaign, “and despite everything, barefoot poverty, the most miserable, is not much here. There is a lot of mixture here.”
Days later, in the Estalagem da Encumeada Jorge Cordeiro, at the PCP Secretariat, just before the meeting with the Secretary General, he told me that “this form was normal [a de Edgar Silva] to conduct an election campaign.”
In Feiteirais-Serra d’Água (Ribeira Brava), in Encumeda, the parking lot is almost full. The weather here is “wintery,” he says. It’s raining, there’s fog on the mountain tops and the temperature is nothing. to do with to do with Funchal.
Paulo Raimundo will only be in Madeira for a few hours. He arrives for the dinner meeting and leaves the next morning. In the afternoon there were party meetings.
There are three buses at a standstill. More would arrive in the next few minutes. Only later would the Secretary General arrive quickly, flanked by Edgar Silva. Inside, Ricardo Lume, the only PCP deputy in the Regional Legislative Assembly, and the CDU candidates have been inside for a few minutes. And 310 party members, some of whom came from Porto Santo by boat. “Almost half of the communist militants in Madeira,” they tell me.
At the entrance there are shouts of “CDU, CDU”, clapping and waving flags. Paulo Raimundo greets his comrades. Ricardo Lume, the first to speak and project his voice, said he saw the strength of the party in Madeira, but did not forget to emphasize that “these regional elections pose a huge challenge: transforming the recognition and sympathy that exists in the CDU is placed. in an electoral phrase” – the polls released so far cast doubt on the party’s retention in the Regional Assembly.
Edgar Silva, in his usual slow tone, recalled Miguel Albuquerque’s “prayer” in Senhora do Monte, who “begged that everything would remain the same,” concluding that “he only wants everything to remain the same if he gives one hundred percent has. belly”,
And those with a “full belly” are those “5% of the richest who own 58% of the wealth created on this earth”, while “at the national level” the value is “42%”.
In his speech, Paulo Raimundo, in addition to the usual references to “higher salaries and pensions”, to a party that “stands with the people and workers”, called for a “useful vote”. [a mensagem de transformar “o reconhecimento e a simpatia” em votos nas urnas] for the PCP to be the “big surprise of election night”.
Two doubts remain. When the call to vote is so important [ as sondagens não são favoráveis ao PCP] Why did the Secretary General only come to Madeira for a few hours? And what are these ‘underground forces’ that need to be ‘fighted’?
The answer was postponed until after the dinner meeting. In an orderly manner, according to instructions, each “table takes turns” forming a queue for self-service. “That’s how it works in Madeira,” says an old communist, “that’s not our thing.”
I wait for Paulo Raimundo who calmly arrives to smoke “a cigarette”. What are the ‘underground forces’, I ask. “The whole story is that the PCP is in favor of war, what the PCP wants is war. It’s the exact opposite, but they take the most basic things of people and pull them up.” I insist. And these are the arguments here? ‘They are, there are no others. What are the others? There is no struggle here in Madeira for the rights of workers and people who do not have the spirit and influence of the PCP,” he replies, giving examples of “the party’s action” and criticizing “the idea that we disappear”. They won’t “I honestly don’t think so.” And isn’t this an election for you, a test of your leadership? “No, no… I will be very happy with our results here if they are positive. If they are negative, we will be here to fight.”
Wasn’t it important for the Madeira PCP that the Secretary General was here on the streets campaigning in the decisive week? “We could have set an agenda, but we didn’t. And it wasn’t to protect me. For me it was a huge satisfaction. But that’s the way it is. It’s the agenda. There’s no other reason than that. ” I find myself asking the same question several times, for a few minutes. Paulo Raimundo always responds by talking about the national agenda that ‘is having an effect here’. There’s no point in pushing any further, is there?’ I say for the last time. The PCP Secretary General laughs.
–
Campaign notes
Liberal Initiative speaks beyond expectations about campaign
The head of the IL list for Madeira’s parliamentary elections stated yesterday that the election campaign has exceeded expectations, pointing out that people are already realizing that the party is presenting “plausible” solutions. “They are starting to understand what we mean, that we have ideas, that we have plausible solutions, they are not nonsense or lip service. We are disruptive and, above all, reformists,” Nuno Morna emphasized. The candidate spoke at a meeting in the municipality of Santa Cruz, attended by the national leader of IL, Rui Rocha, and some party deputies of the Assembly of the Republic. Nuno Morna emphasized that people have received IL’s candidacy on the streets “very well”. “Apart from one episode that I am not proud of,” he said, referring to a conversation he had with an audience in Funchal on Thursday in which the leader of the list became excited.
Enough criticism of the government’s inability to talk to the Bank
The head of Chega’s list for the Madeira legislature, Miguel Castro, said yesterday that the “loss of economic power” worries Madeira’s residents the most and argued that the government should “talk to the banks”. ‘People are starting to become desperate and no longer see capacity in governments. The government [da República] cannot talk to the banks, cannot formulate measures to protect society,” he said, warning of the new 25 basis point interest rate hike announced by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday, the tenth in a row. Machico Miguel Castro also highlighted the high tax burden and loss of purchasing power as the main concerns of Madeira residents, stressing that this exacerbates the housing problem. “Even people who have a house are very afraid of losing it. People feel sad. There are people who paid 700 and a few euros a month in house costs and are now paying 1300,” he warned.
Bloco says the ‘varnish’ that disguised the disguised gardening has disappeared
The head of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) list for the regional offices in Madeira, Roberto Almada, accused the PSD and CDS-PP of using public resources in the campaign, as he assumed that “the veneer” tried to hide the garden past to erase has disappeared. “It is a shame and the bloc never tires of denouncing that the resources of the regional government and the region do not come from the PSD/CDS coalition,” the candidate stated during the only lunch that the BE candidacy in this campaign, at the Council Chamber of Wolves. Roberto Almada spoke of the promises made by the head of the list of the PSD/CDS coalition, the social democrat Miguel Albuquerque, who is running for a third term as president of the regional government, at the inaugurations of ‘away – and supermarket’. “Miguel Albuquerque is the new gardening,” said the candidate, considering that “the democratic veneer with which he tried to erase the gardening past has already disappeared”, in a reference to Alberto João Jardim, who led the regional government for 37 years from Madeira. years.
JPP defends regime pact to lower house prices
The leader of Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) in Madeira’s legislature, Élvio Sousa, defended a “regime pact” between the regional government and local authorities to market housing at affordable prices, preventing more Madeirans from falling into poverty expired. “Tackling housing means that a public offering must be put on the market within two years, but it is the government itself and the municipalities that have to build. The government must establish open, free protocols with all municipalities and conclude a regime pact,” he said, adding that otherwise “Madeirans will earn money to go to the supermarket, or earn money to find a place to live”. Élvio Sousa spoke after a rally for the JPP’s candidacy in the town of Machico, in the east of the island, where the candidates contacted people, traders and taxi drivers, handing out ballpoint pens and pamphlets. “It is important not to impoverish the middle class because unfortunately I fear that, given the price of houses, this will drag more Madeira residents into poverty,” he said.
Source: DN
