At the end they hugged. Paulo Raimundo and Jerónimo de Sousa, carving out the passage of testimonies in the leadership of the Portuguese Communists. The former secretary-general kissed his wife in front of the cameras, an impressive picture of entering a new phase of militancy, freed from the burden of leading the party, but without turning his back on the Central Committee.
Both, one at the farewell or the other at the premiere, called for “mobilization of the collective” to regain the PCP’s social and electoral weight, which has faded in recent years. And this was really the main message of the National Conference that took place this weekend in Corroios, Seixal, that the PCP will not lower its arms to the absolute majority of the PS that “cranked” its left and finally reduced the communist bank to the smallest size since the 1975 Constituent Assembly.
“There are people who are drooling and desperate for the end of the PCP. Just sit down,” Paulo Raimundo assured in his first speech as general secretary. Wearing a light blue shirt, dark “blazer” and beige trousers, the new leader – also new at age 46 – issued a strong call for the party’s mobilization, asking that “everyone give a little more, earn more “. effort, gain more confidence”. And he also winked at society, which is currently suffering from the inflationary crisis: “We are not and do not want to be alone”.
This was one of the moments when Paulo Raimundo, elected unanimously by the PCP Central Committee on Saturday, received the first of two huge ovations. The second was when he thanked Jerónimo de Sousa for his role in fighting for the party. “The change in your responsibilities is not a goodbye, it’s a goodbye comrade”.
It was in this symbolism of applause and cries of slogans “PCP, PCP” or “this is how you see the power of the PC” that the comrades expressed their gratitude for the arrival of Jerónimo and Raimundo in the leadership. Because in the interventions of the deputies there was no room for the two.
None of the delegates who went to the podium, and there were more than 70, spoke, not even a little, about the change in leadership in the party. They all focused on the idea of mobilization for political struggle and criticism of social, local and global problems, as well as censorship of PS administration and condemnation of right-wing forces.
As the former parliamentary leader of the PCP and former mayor of Loures, Bernardino Soares, accused António Costa and the President of the Republic of “supreme hypocrisy” and urged the party to rebel against the propaganda of “false inevitability “.
“They’re trying to convince us that to stop inflation the only solution is to raise interest rates, which will create a recession, which will increase unemployment. It’s the purest capitalist playbook. The essential thing was the wage increase,” he said. In fact, Bernardino was one of the most applauded in Pavilhão Alto do Moinho, where the conference took place.
Battle PS
Paulo Raimundo also pledged to fight the socialist government, which he accused of committing the “injustice” of worsening living conditions for the Portuguese. Especially since he rejected the idea that there is a crisis, since “there are a handful who profit while the bill is always theirs”.
From here it was a step to promise that the party he now leads will not make a truce with whoever was previously an ally in the apparatus. And like Jerónimo de Sousa, Paulo Raimundo never made a flashback, not even to praise the PCP’s role in government from 2015 to 2019. All his words were based on the reality culminating in the January 2022 elections.
“The PS, doing everything it could to force early elections, wanted an absolute majority, which it achieved with the support of capital and its powerful resources. The results are in sight”. But, he assured, “the government does not have a completely free hand: it has in the struggle of the workers and the population, it has in the intervention of the PCP, in its various manifestations, the elements that are resistant to it”.
In this first confrontation with the rest of the leadership, Paulo Raimundo was similar in content to Jerónimo, but more austere in form. Even in the raised fist, when singing the “PCP, PCP” or the national anthem – Avante Camarada – it was less exuberant than its predecessor. But one also said goodbye after 18 years, the other took on the main face of the Portuguese communists for the first time. And the comrades gave him all the support, quite audibly, to refine the tone and leave those who “drool for the end of the PCP” in their seats.
Source: DN
