Agreements with the PSD, yes; but the conversation is different with IL – who are not “modern CDS” and are “close to the Bloco de Esquerda” – and Chega, who attacks Putin “on Sunday” and then goes “arm in arm with Salvini on Monday”.
The words are from Nuno Melo, president of the CDS-PP, spoken this Sunday at the conclusion of the Popular Youth Congress (JP), which took place Saturday and Sunday in Cascais, and saw Francisco Camacho re-elected at the head of the iota. In the speech, Nuno Melo – who is also a CDS-elected MEP – addressed the recent lunch between PSD and IL leaders Luís Montenegro and Rui Rocha, respectively. But he said he was “not concerned at all”. “Every day we have lunch with people from the PSD in more than 40 rooms, in the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores, and personally I often have lunch with PSD Members of the European Parliament, with whom I have already campaigned or with whom I have been an adversary.” said Nuno Melo. And then he left some advice: “Politics is much more than lunches, politics is work, we will earn all the lunches, all the votes, not because they extend a hand to us, but for what the ballot boxes are worth, not because we are vulnerable, but because we work.”
He then criticized the other right-wing parties in Portugal, noting disagreements between the CDS-PP, IL and Chega. Nuno Melo is clear about the liberals: they are not a right-wing party, “a modern CDS”. In fact, says the Christian Democratic leader, who takes a stance on the role of the state in the economy, they are the party closest to the left bloc in Portugal. An example of this, he says, is the position on euthanasia or gender ideology. As for Chega, Nuno Melo accuses André Ventura’s party of not being democratic. Without ever mentioning the name of Chega’s leader, the CDS-PP president first referred that “the conservative right is institutional, even if it disagrees, it doesn’t claw at heads of state. The conservative right does not surround the headquarters of other parties,” a reference to Saturday’s protest in front of the PS headquarters. And then he accused the Chega leader of inconsistency: “We don’t attack Putin on Sunday and then go arm in arm with Salvini on Monday.”
“CDS is a representative thought force for many”
The re-elected leader of the JP, Francisco Camacho, highlighted in his speech the degradation of the speech since the CDS-PP left parliament, and also took the opportunity to criticize Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
To the DN, the JP leader says the candidacy was “not taken lightly”, at a time when the party has no parliamentary representation. In addition to the natural continuity that comes with re-election, Francisco Camacho believes that “there is hope” and “a path for Portuguese democratic right, so there is room for the new generations of the CDS”. Does this space represent a role for the party in national politics? “Naturally. The CDS is a representative brainpower for many Portuguese, able to reflect on the country, reflect on its problems and offer alternative solutions to socialist stagnation. Social and economic development responses, with a strong foundation in freedom, are in the DNA” of the party, which, says Francisco Camacho, brings together all those “who do not see themselves in extremism that solves nothing, nor in the social and economic experiences that the left constantly failed tests”.
In addition to the non-representation of the CDS in parliament, the re-election of Francisco Camacho for the next two years comes in an even more difficult context, with an absolute majority of the PS. For the JP leader, there are “four problems”: “An absolute majority of a single party, which quickly led to a parliamentary dictatorship”, with a president “too attached to the government, leaving no room for party oversight”, conditioning “moderate opposition”; third, the worst government in history. For not having any reformist (only survivalist) chance and for having ministers and secretaries of state without any authority”. And then, he says, “there is the fear that the democratic right needs the extreme right, just as in the past the PS needed the extreme left. Well, this is one of the worst political pictures ever painted in Portugal. JP there will always be be a struggle to change this sludge,” says Francisco Camacho.
Source: DN
