“The bloc has lost its matrix. There is an exodus of its principles. There is a perpetuation of power. Some lack internal democracy.”
In summary, four ideas that guide Rui Cortes, Member of the National Council, and one of the elements of Convergence [oposição interna]to defend the “general renewal of the deputies”, the “renewal of the cadres” of the party and of the “secretariat perpetuated in time”.
In the “present state of the Bloco de Esquerda”, even that which was “one of the flags of the Bloco, the renewal of deputies, was lost”. “Renovation is essential. Political professionalization in the Bloc is not good, it is not desirable. They cannot be the same faces for so long.”
And Catherine Martins? “It’s not her person that’s at stake.” But when you ask for renewal of the party, one implies the other. “(…) It turns out to be so,” he replies.
On Saturday, Catarina Martins declined to speak about any removal scenarios, justifying that “it wouldn’t make sense for [ela] talk about candidacies today. [Terão] other ways to do this.”
In addition to “other problems”, says Rui Cortes, there is a “lack of demarcation with respect to the PS”. And he gives as an example the cases of the most recent municipal and legislative elections: “It was to see Catarina [Martins] one week he says one thing and the next week he says another. Sometimes dating PS, sometimes criticizing PS. It’s a total blur.”
The also professor at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, with a doctorate in forest sciences, also accuses the management of Catarina Martins of “trying to reduce diversity within the BE” because they have “adapted”.
“They feel the danger of losing what they have acquired. That’s where the tension comes from. They try to stop diversity by restricting participation in the National Convention [marcada para 27 e 28 de maio] of the different sensitivities out there that are critical of what is happening. Instead of reflection, they perpetuate themselves in strength,” he says.
The example to justify this “brake”, he guarantees, is “the decision” of the Secretariat to “raise the minimum number of subscribers from 20 to 200” of the motions – the alternative motion of the Convergence [oposição interna]will be released on February 27.
The leader of the Bloco de Esquerda, for its part, guaranteed right after the meeting of the National Council that “the Convention processes are very participative, we are going to hold several debates within the party to create orientation motions and very soon this movement will move forward , we will be here for any questions about this, to present the projects for the block, for the future.”
And that’s because, he explained, “that’s how it should be. Today I am the coordinator of the political committee in office, with all its sensibilities, with majorities and minorities and that’s what I represent”.
Immediately after losing more than half of the votes [de 500 mil para 244 mil] in legislative elections, the reduction of 19 to five deputies [Mariana Mortágua, Pedro Filipe Soares, Catarina Martins, José Soeiro e Joana Mortágua] and the loss of the place of the third political force [que ficou com o Chega]the internal opposition in the BE tried to anticipate the National Convention, but was refused – 130 militants wanted to analyze the bloc’s situation and even allowed internal elections.
At the time, management said that advancing the Convention, based on the election result, would jeopardize the regulatory deadlines for internal debate, which would be a great favor to the PS, which had just won an absolute majority.
Now that the date is set (“months away from the Madeira Regionals and about a year away from the European and Azores Regionals. Strange, isn’t it?”) and also because “the National Secretariat, which runs the party, refuses to taking stock of the cycle of electoral defeats and drawing political consequences,” another leader of the opposition says it is time to make “this reflection”.
“We must make a major effort to compensate for the discredit caused by the lack of internal democracy and a parliamentary political discourse without horizon,” he asks.
Former leaders, heard by the DN, admit there are “difficulties in rooting the BE in the electorate”, a “weariness in the leadership of Catarina Martins and the “problem” of presenting political proposals that are read as a struggle which can respond to the country’s problems,” but they are not advocating going in this direction.
“The rotation of boys does not replace political projects. It is true that it has been there for a long time, it is true that they are the same, but polls indicate growth. And by the way, already in 2003 it was said that the BE was exhausted. a stereotype “, they say.
Mariana Mortágua has been a deputy since 2011; Pedro Filipe Soares and Catarina Martins have been in parliament since 2009; José Soeiro is the eldest, he has been a deputy since 2005; and Joana Mortágua, the most recent: she joined the Assembly of the Republic in 2015.
António Costa Pinto, political scientist and coordinating researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, believes that what happened to the BE and is happening now, “was its transformation into a structured party, less connected to certain activisms, no longer to be a party of post-materialistic goals”. In other words, he explains, it was no longer “this middle-class party, dissatisfied with the PS, and expanded, building a very differentiated network. The causes were integrated and approved over time” in parliament.
In essence, the researcher argues, the Bloco de Esquerda “became more moderate, it consolidated itself as a political party and, as a political party, it knows that in Portuguese society there are, so to speak, limits to accepting a dynamic of more radical activism”.
And then there is “a lesser connection with social movements”. Evidence of this, he notes, is “the attempt by Catarina Martins, and others from BE, to integrate any manifestation. The case of teachers, the STOP union for example. They automatically attempt to politically frame these dynamics of social movements . And that means, I repeat, a lesser connection with social movements”.
The “consolidation” of the Bloco de Esquerda as a party is reflected in “the fact that it does not escape certain consolidating tendencies of the political parties [nomeadamente a normalização] regardless of its nature”.
Has it become a party without a reason? Sofia Lopes, from the BE youth group, says she disagrees with “this definition” of a good thing because “it diminishes the work of the Bloc”. Then how do you define it? “A socialist party fighting for feminist goals, for LGBT goals, eco-socialism… It’s a party of goals, but more than that.”
Sofia Lopes justifies the electoral fall of the BE with the “stability rhetoric of the PS that managed to caricature what the bloc is and also the PCP. This speech of stability is frightening, it scares me a little , the certainty that our decision to vote against the budget [em 2021, quando o chumbo provocou a queda do governo] knocked”.
Pedro Filipe Soares, in an interview with DN [outubro de 2022]said he had “no idea that Catarina Martins leadership was part of our electoral problem (…). It is a great asset to the party externally. Internally it had and still has the capacity for dialogue that I think it appreciates “.
In that interview, the parliamentary leader of the Bloco de Esquerda compared the longevity of Costa’s leadership to justify not addressing the issue of “wear and tear”. “I feel in Catarina the same strength as when I met her, even she did not dream of becoming the coordinator of the block. I feel the same strength in her convictions and the same ability to create this dynamic in others. António Costa is with the head of the PS since before 2014 and I don’t think anyone has asked the question in those terms about António Costa,” he said.
Source: DN
