Former secretary general of the PCP Carlos Carvalhas praised Paulo Raimundo this Saturday, classifying him as a listener who “pays attention to what is said”, but warned that “it is not just a leader” who projects the party.
“We have a young man who entered the executive bodies when I was general secretary. He was a generous young man, with an important ability to listen and pay attention to what was said,” he described, qualities that he believes they will stay.
Speaking to journalists, on the sidelines of the National Conference of the PCP, which takes place this Saturday and Sunday in the municipal pavilion of Alto do Moinho, in Seixal, the former general secretary of the PCP between 1992 and 2004 emphasized that the choice of Paulo Raimundo was the “collective”.
When asked if this is the right choice at a time when the communist seat in parliament has only six deputies and Paulo Raimundo is not one of them, as he is a relatively unknown figure to the public, Carlos Carvalhas replied that “the future it will show”.
“The future will tell, but this is a collective decision and I believe that it is not just one leader that the party can project, it is all of us, we are all communists, anyone who understands that the projection of this general secretary is it’s the General Secretary, it’s not the party, it’s the Portuguese people, it’s the workers, it’s the small and medium-sized businessmen,” he replied.
Carval has repeatedly emphasized that this was a “collective decision”, taken “after much deliberation, weighing all the pros and cons, knowing that this position is very demanding and certainly in a party like the PCP even more demanding than in other parties, which solution of personal family problems required and obligatory”.
“And that’s why this was a process that was not in the street, not in the square, but of course had its follow-up,” he underlined.
Asked about other names spoken of in the public opinion as hypotheses to succeed Jerónimo de Sousa, such as João Oliveira or João Ferreira, Carvalhas stressed that this fact “only shows that it is a party that also promotes its cadres, that works “.
Regarding the legacy of the leadership of Jerónimo de Sousa, who said goodbye this Saturday to the delegates present at the conference, Carvalhas replied: “Any intervention of the party remains, an intervention in favor of the defense of the workers , of our country, of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, and I think that is very clear”.
Carlos Carvalhas held the post of general secretary of the PCP for 12 years, succeeding the historic Álvaro Cunhal. In 2004, the former worker Jerónimo de Sousa took over this position, leaving it after 18 years to make way for Paulo Raimundo.
Source: DN
