“How wonderful our party is!” It was with this sentence that Paulo Raimundo made his debut as leader of the PCP, speaking for the party, at the National Conference that ends this Sunday, in Pavilhão Alto do Moinho, in Corroios, Seixal. The new Communist General Secretary did not forget to thank the “contribution” of his predecessor Jerónimo de Sousa and promised to strengthen the party and stand up against the PS. “There are people who are drooling and despairing for the end of the PCP. Sit down and wait,” he said.
The election of Paulo Raimundo as leader of the PCP by the Central Committee (CC) was greeted with strong applause from the party’s National Conference. For several minutes, delegates and guests chanted “PCP, PCP” as they held their feet. They had already done so when it was announced that Jerónimo de Sousa will remain on the CC.
On his first intervention as leader, Paulo Raimundo set his sights on the PS, after he remembered “brutal pressure, blackmail and attack on wages”, while “the government, through the state budget, assures millionaire profits to economic groups in the energy sector”.
“The PS, doing everything it could to force early elections, wanted an absolute majority, which it obtained with the support of capital and its powerful resources”, says and promised the party: “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 expressions, elements that oppose it”.
In a strong call for party mobilization, Paulo Raimundo received two great ovations in the pavilion. When he thanked Jerónimo de Sousa for the role… “the change in your responsibilities is not a goodbye, it’s a goodbye comrade” – and then he promised “a stronger party”.
The new Communist General Secretary noted that he had to follow the script presented by Jerónimo de Sousa at his farewell. Paulo Raimundo stressed that the party “is not hiding its shortcomings”, but that it is “determined to overcome all difficulties and take advantage of the potential that is opening up.
It’s like? He wants to connect the party more with the masses, make progress in propaganda and train a thousand new cadres by the end of 2024, in addition to continuing the recruitment campaign.
Paulo Raimundo said it is possible to reverse the course of the country’s impoverishment by confronting right-wing politics, including the PS, and defending a policy that frees the country “from submission to the euro” .
The conference ended with the national anthem Comrade ahead, regarding the election of the new general secretary. Who hugged Jerónimo at the end of the speech.
Source: DN
