Two days before the start of the 46th edition of the Festa do Avante, communists and sympathizers are finishing the preparations for Quinta da Atalaia and want to make the organization of the political-cultural event a “space of peace”.
“My answer is very simple: the Festa do Avante is a space of peace – it was, remains and will always be a space of peace -, our positioning is this,” said Lusa Madalena Santos, responsible for organizing the ‘Party ‘.
In the past two years, in the midst of a pandemic, the communist rentrée has been criticized for taking place with a number of people above the allowable for other events, but the PCP has always justified itself with the political nature of this event. The party believes that the editions speak for themselves in time of a pandemic and have withstood the test.
However, the position regarding the war in Ukraine could be another test of an event shrouded in controversy, something Madalena Santos, responsible for organizing the PCP rentrée, said she was cautious about.
A member of the PCP’s regional organization in Lisbon, Madalena Santos, explained that the party plans to show the public that it is fighting for peace under all circumstances and that it is not on the side of war, despite the fact that several commentators and political figures have “pointed the finger” at the communists for alleged alignment with the Kremlin.
This morning it was not very busy at Quinta da Atalaia. Here and there the final stages were drawn up – namely those in which the Secretary General of the PCP will address the militants and those of the Avanteatro – what was missing were screwed and the last boards were put in place to strengthen the stalls and the food and drinking places. .
At the sports venue that hosts the futsal and wheelchair rugby tournaments, a militant holds a giant flag with a red carnation and the words “freedom, democracy” and socialism” written in yellow.
Several artists included in the poster, such as Dino D’Santiago and the band Mão Morta, were also criticized for accepting to be part of the Festa do Avante.
The director of the organization responded to the criticism spread on social media: “Artists are all welcome and the positioning here is to do their job”.
The politico-cultural event is also, according to Madalena Santos, ‘a space of freedom’ in terms of the way in which artists ‘work their art’.
The restrictions and extra care that the pandemic has forced in recent years are a thing of the past and this year the Festa do Avante is done as in the pre-pandemic period, but with changes from the last two editions that ‘took’, namely , the seats to attend the classical music concert on Friday and pay ‘contactless’.
Lusa noted that many more people helped prepare the political-cultural event this year than in previous years. Madalena Santos said “many hundreds” of people have passed through this location in the parish of Amora, Seixal municipality in recent weeks to “build the ‘party'”.
And they weren’t all communists: “There are a lot of friends who work with us, there are a lot of Democrats who come over the weekend to contribute, I think there are more people this year”.
The usual intervention music coming from the loudspeakers filled all the spaces of Quinta da Atalaia, as trucks drove from one side to the other. Some carry barrels of beer, others, older and rusty, carry “comrades” from one end of the fence to the other.
Communists usually say “there’s no party like this,” but until the doors open at 6 p.m. on Friday, there are still details to fine-tune, hang flags, paint carnations on the walls, and prepare dinners .
Source: DN
