It takes away the idea of being a left-wing woman and rejects stereotypes of any kind. Speaking to DN, Mónica Freitas states that “there is still this prejudice about feminism, where it is thought that all those people who publicly recognize themselves as feminists are extremists and radicals. And that extremists can only be in left-wing parties. I joined PAN in 2021 because it is a party of good causes, a party that fits neither the right nor the left, but whose goal is to assert people’s rights,” he explains.
By obtaining 2.25% of the votes in the regional elections in Madeira, which corresponds to the choice of 3046 voters, the PAN became a key player last Sunday in the strategic option to form the winning coalition, between the PSD and the CDS, stability government. . PSD and CDS together elected 23 deputies, but needed 24 to reach an absolute majority. Of the four parties that each elected one deputy – Left Bloc, Liberal Initiative, CDU (PCP and Ecologists Party Os Verdes) and PAN – the latter was chosen by the coalition of social democrats and centrists to provide the future regional executive with the necessary tools to give. to govern. Two days after the elections, Mónica Freitas, the PAN’s only elected regional delegate, announced that she would facilitate a parliamentary advocacy agreement with the PSD. CDS was not taken into account in the decision to sign this agreement.
“It was of course a post-election agreement. We didn’t predict the results, we didn’t know what was going to happen. On the night of September 24, the polls indicated that we could choose between zero and one deputy. Of course not. We expected then that there would be a question of government stability and that this proposal would be made to the PAN for an agreement. It was a decision that was made as a team and was extremely deliberate.”, emphasizes the elected deputy. Asked whether by signing the agreement she would deceive the expectations of PAN voters, Mónica Freitas considers this situation as “the best opportunity to guarantee, on the one hand, at a democratic level, this governmental stability and, on the other hand, applicable to those who are the causes are of the PAN”. Furthermore, he confirms that this will be a good opportunity for the party to see some of the proposed measures implemented.
Dissonant voices in the party
A month and a half before the regional elections in Madeira, Mónica Freitas was not at the top of the list of candidates for deputies, as this place was taken by Joaquim Sousa. “On August 7, during a meeting of the regional political commission, I was told that Marco Gonçalves [mandatário do partido] and Mónica Freitas – the elected deputy – spoke with Inês Sousa Real [a líder do PAN a nível nacional e deputada única na Assembleia da República], who now understood that I had said bad things about them, that they had said I would talk bad about them, that I said they didn’t work at all. That is not true. Inês de Sousa Real lied to these colleagues, or these colleagues lied to Inês de Sousa Real.”Joaquim Sousa told DN, adding that he was informed that he would no longer head the PAN list for the regional elections. “Other activists present in the regional political committee also disagreed, but that same evening Inês de Sousa Real, Marco Gonçalves and Mónica Freitas removed my access to the PAN email. Therefore, I no longer have a way to communicate with the militants and be informed of what happened”, says the former head of the PAN list, emphasizing that the party’s national political committee has removed 44 members from the list of candidates for deputies. In the elections, Mónica Freitas would eventually be elected deputy, as head of the list.
Joaquim Sousa told DN that he is still a spokesperson for the party’s regional structure and that he should therefore have been called to speak to the representative of the Republic, Irineu Barreto, who yesterday declared all parties with seats in the party heard. regional parliament. This did not happen and Mónica Freitas went to the meeting. Joaquim Sousa admitted that he would never have made the agreement with the PSD viable if he had been the elected deputy. Joaquim Sousa stated in an article in the regional press two days before the elections that he would not vote for his own party. “I would certainly have to follow a disciplinary procedure,” he concluded.
“We had a candidacy in which I was number two and Joaquim Sousa was head of the list. However, due to various conflicts at the internal regional level, we came to the conclusion, on the eve of submitting the candidacy, but in the majority of candidates regional political committee, that there were things that were unacceptable and that there should be change,” confirms Mónica Feitas.
The young activist, who founded the association Womaniza-te in 2018, works as a social worker and will continue to do so until he takes up the popular mandate as deputy. Through the association she founded, Mónica Freitas has a podcast called Virtual Masturbador, “with the aim of demystifying some ideas, breaking some taboos” and “aimed at young people”, she admits, but with the intention of talking about ” serious things.” . With housing in one of the episodes, Mónica Freitas shows what will happen. “As a young activist and, even more so, within my field, which is social services, this is clearly a concern that I also have”he decides.
Source: DN
