Today, exactly one month ago, Paulo Raimundo, 46 years old and a communist worker since he was 19, born in Cascais but raised in Setúbal, son of a metalworker and a cleaning lady, is married with three children (two teenagers and a baby), a supporter of Benfica, member of all the party’s highest organs (Central Committee, Political Commission and Secretariat), was elected Secretary General of the PCP. The vote in the Central Committee was without surprises: he was elected unanimously and became the fourth general secretary of the PCP since April 25, after Álvaro Cunhal (from 1961 to 1992), Carlos Carvalhas (1992 to 2004) and Jerónimo de Sousa (2004 until 2022).
The choice had been announced days earlier by the party leadership, surprising many militants, including in the Central Committee, as acknowledged at the time by Jerónimo de Sousa himself. Succession to the leadership has long been discussed, not least because of the evolution of the Secretary-General’s health. And Paulo Raimundo had never been on the list of spoken names. Namely: João Oliveira (former parliamentary leader); João Ferreira (Council Member of Lisbon, former presidential candidate and former MEP); and Bernardino Soares (former parliamentary leader, former mayor of Loures).
It hasn’t stopped since then. The immediate priority of the PCP machine is one, given that it has a new leader completely unknown to the Portuguese: introduce him to the country. And this by all means: party propaganda, sessions with militants, meetings, factory visits, interviews.
Questioned by DN, the PCP’s news agency reported that Paulo Raimundo had already traveled “about three thousand kilometers” across the country until yesterday, Sunday. And he gave six interviews: to RTP, CNN-Portugal, Lusa, JN/TSF and to podcast (inserted Place do Expresso) “Asking Doesn’t Offend,” by political commentator Daniel Oliveira, a former militant of the PCP and the Left Bloc, a party he helped found.
“We have party organizations that have arranged everything very well, with their dues up to date, organized everything, but with a disconnect in the middle of where they are. Or what good is a parish committee that has its dues up to date, sold “Verder!” , but then ignores the problems experienced in that parish.”
In the coming days, weeks and months many more thousands of kilometers will be covered and many more interviews will be given. The new leader of the PCP cannot refuse any form of disclosure for the time being. And he will not lack time to stand up for himself: the first major electoral test will take place in June 2024, with the European elections (currently the party has two elected MEPs, out of a total of 21 Portuguese); then there will be municipal elections in October 2025 (19 mayors out of 308); then the presidential election (January 2026); and finally the trial by fire, where the PCP will play all or nothing to survive, the parliamentary elections of October 2026. Currently, the communist presence in parliament is the weakest ever in its history: six deputies out of 230. is anyone predicting that the party is on the verge of parliamentary extinction.
For the time being, in terms of style and, for example, the gift of empathy, the major differences between the new leader and the previous leader have yet to be observed. But three clear innovations emerged in the discourse and priorities.
First: an illuminating clarification of the party’s position on the war in Ukraine. While he always held to the idea that what is happening now did not start now but in 2014 (civil war in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, between Ukrainians and Russians), Paulo Raimundo clearly assumed that Russia’s action to invade Ukraine .
Eye on recent “dissidents”
The other novelty was an explicit invitation to all those who had distanced themselves from the PCP to return (because “they are sorely missed”).
The “targets” of this challenge are not only former militants, but also former onescompanions per route🇧🇷 And, as explained to DN by a party militant who worked with Paulo Raimundo, and is also addressed to those who have been out for decades (the PCP had dozens of dissent when the Berlin Wall fell on them), the invitation it also targets those who, very recently, became disillusioned with the party because of its positions in the face of the war in Ukraine and/or with the vote against OE2022 (resulting in early elections and an absolute majority of the PS) .
In any case, added the same interlocutor, whoever wants to return must do so in the belief that “you will not find another PCP than he is”: a party, as the resolution adopted at the last congress says, anchored in the Russian Revolution of 1917 that defends “the creative application of Marxism-Leninism”, fights for a “revolutionary transformation of society” and whose inner workings are “based on a creative development of democratic centralism”.
Paulo Raimundo’s third innovation was translated into an admittedly critical diagnosis he made about the “disconnection” between the PCP and the surrounding country. “We have party organizations that have arranged everything very well, with their dues up to date, organized everything, but with a disconnection in the middle of where they are. Or what good is a parish committee, for example, that has its dues up to date, sold “Forward!” , but then ignores the problems people live in that parish,” the new leader told Lusa.
Asked by DN about the state in which he found the PCP during the visits he made over the past month, Paulo Raimundo’s answer was predictable, highlighting “the positive impact” that the National Conference of the PCP of December 12 and 12 ( the meeting of the Central Committee that elected him general secretary took place) had in “mobilization”, “dynamism” and “militant commitment”, as well as the “enthusiasm of the militants” and a “broad participation”.
Pedro Tadeu, journalist, former deputy director of DN, communist militant for decades and member of the “Avante!” In the short term, however, there was a “positive impact”, demonstrable in a poll Intercampus published in Mail tomorrow and not Business magazine on Nov. 25, giving the PCP an increase of 2.8 points (from 2.6 percent to 5.4).
There are about 1400 days left before the next parliamentary elections. If he continues on the same average as last month, Paulo Raimundo still has 140,000 kilometers to go. It’s three and a half laps around planet Earth.
Source: DN
