The presidents of the PSD and CDS, Luís Montenegro and Nuno Melo, confirmed on Thursday that their parties will form a pre-electoral coalition for the parliamentary elections on March 10 and also for the European elections taking place in July, following the commitments made have already been done that exist in the regions of Madeira and the Azores, and of the local agreements planned for the municipal councils in 2025.
Luís Montenegro presented the coalition as “an aggregating, moderate and ambitious project” focused on people. “It is with a sense of responsibility that I lead this electoral front that represents parties and civil society,” the social democratic leader wrote on Twitter, guaranteeing that “the wave of change is growing.”
The new Democratic Alliance, which will have to be approved by the national bodies of both parties, will include “a group of independent personalities” who embrace the ideas of the Manifesto for a Reformist and Moderate Alternative, released on December 15 and signed by a hundred figures such as former Socialist Finance Minister Daniel Bessa, manager António Nogueira Leite, former national coach Fernando Santos and television presenter Manuel Luís Goucha.
The statement that made the agreement official, which the two leaders negotiated for two weeks, makes no reference to the distribution of the candidates’ seats – as the CDS-PP did not elect any deputies in the 2022 parliamentary elections.
The objectives of the agreement are clearer. For “effective political and policy changes,” the parties promise “much greater ambition” to achieve “high levels of prosperity, economic and income growth and opportunities for all Portuguese.” And the rescue and rehabilitation of the social state, overcoming its “continuing withering away”, to “give all Portuguese access to accessible and quality health care, education and housing”, which the coalition argues comes from “a reformist courage that the competitiveness of companies, the qualification of Portuguese people, innovation and the generation of added value, the strengthening of entrepreneurial and exporting Portugal and the valorization of the rural world”.
From a social policy perspective, the change advocated involves a “strong social conscience, based on the dignity of the human person, to combat poverty, reactivate social mobility and value the family”. Something that involves the ‘resumption of demands in education’ and confidence in social institutions in the third sector.
In an effort to highlight the differences between António Costa’s executives, the PSD and CDS-PP promise a governance that “sets high ethical standards, integrity, political responsibility, respect for the separation of powers and institutions, and a effective commitment to combating corruption and influence. peddling.” And also a “moderate, Europeanist, Atlanticist and Lusophone change, defender of freedom, equal opportunities, citizen security and defense of the country, with respect for private property, who invests in sustainable development and values culture, values, the Portuguese language and communities”.
Source: DN
