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“For months and months I waited for my party, the Socialist Party, to present its own candidate, outside its ranks or its political area.”
Ana Gomes had this attached, and it was the first message she wanted to send in her official candidacy speech for the Presidency of the Republic: she waited, gave signs that she would be interested, waited, waited again and the only thing she saw in May was the secretary general of the PS (and Prime Minister) to roll out the carpet for the re-election of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (former PSD leader, for all intents and purposes), and postpone the socialist congress to the first quarter of January, that is, after the presidential elections (because of the pandemic, it is true). It is seen and not believed, says Ana Gomes, who has no doubt that, with or without her, the PS could not withdraw from this debate and cannot abdicate having its own candidate.
“I neither understand nor accept the devaluation of an act as significant as the election to the Presidency of the Republic. (…) How can democratic socialism not participate in this election? “
It’s the same idea, but with an added emphasis: António Costa’s tone on the issue of presidential candidates. This was seen in the political discourse of the socialist rentrée, in Coimbra, when Costa deliberately devalued the presidential candidates in the triad of elections that will take place next year. At that time, Costa said in all his words that “the political year will be very demanding because we will have three elections, two of which are decisive for the PS”, the regional ones in the Azores and the municipal ones at the end of the year. Presidential, nor see them. The socialist general secretary had already done the same at a meeting of the PS national political commission in May, just after the famous “Autoeuropa” moment, when he launched Marcelo for a second term, saying that the PS should focus on the essential and ignore the accessory. The essential was the response to the crisis, the accessory was the presidential. Four months have passed and the strategy is the same. For Ana Gomes it is clear: without neglecting governance and the response to the pandemic crisis, the political space of democratic socialism cannot be empty in an election like this, and at a time like this, of such a serious and threatening crisis lurking.
“I hope, of course, that my party has a democratic debate on a fundamental issue such as the election to the Presidency of the Republic, and I also trust that the members of my party know how to think in their own heads.”
He started right away together, but in the questions of the journalists he went even deeper into criticizing the PS (or rather, António Costa). Asked about the silence of the PS in relation to her candidacy, Ana Gomes implied that it is the leader of the PS who is limiting the internal debate on who should, or should, support the party in the race to Belém. who naturally hopes that this debate will continue to take place within the party, which is a democratic party (there will be a meeting of the national commission at the end of the year), and naturally also hopes – and trusts – that the militants of. The criticism was done. If he thinks that the PS should choose the candidate it will support through the internal primaries, he did not say so, but perhaps in his mind he was sure that, if so, the militants would surely prefer her to the candidate. of the PSD. .
“I have received many, many messages of support and encouragement from PS activists to apply and run. Of militants and current leaders of the PS ”.
Proof of this is this key phrase. Can be bluff, but it can also be the idea that the socialists even support it, privately, and just don’t say it openly so as not to offend the ‘boss’, who has been keeping quiet. Ana Gomes says that she has not only received many messages of support from socialist activists but also from current party leaders, there it is, those who do not want to break the norm, since the internal debate has not yet taken place within the organs . match.
“We know that anti-democratic forces lurk opportunistically, with authoritarian designs that can only bring repression and violence (…) We cannot continue to let citizens be pushed to the sidelines, caught up in the talk of false prophets or in the lethargy of abstention “.
Not once did he say the name of André Ventura (neither in the speech nor in the responses to journalists), in an apparent strategy aligned with that of Marisa Matias who yesterday, in the presentation of his candidacy, did the same. The socialist did not even respond to Ventura, who said she would resign from Chega if Ana Gomes stayed ahead of her in the race. Ignore in order not to appreciate. But, even without mentioning it, she insisted on saying that she intends to fight the false prophets, undemocratic forces with authoritarian designs, who stalk and make use of the fringe of the population that feels disillusioned, marginalized and excluded to catapult themselves. Ana Gomes says that she recognizes that the system is corroded, but it is from within that she wants to change it, involving citizens in democracy. Deepening democracy, with transparency, is its watchword.
“Portugal needs a president who gives guarantees of independence, who serves the national interest and is not afraid of going against established interests. (…) A president who collaborates with governments without being conditioned or held hostage to partisan agendas ”.
Ana Gomes also did not say the name of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the initial phase of the speech, which was drafted, but said it several times when responding to journalists. Ana Gomes has no problem praising Marcelo, whose mandate makes “a positive balance”, but she leaves here to understand that Marcelo is the politician of the system. The regime politician, who was once the leader of the party. Marisa Matias is also the BE candidate, as well as the PCP candidate will be the PCP candidate. Rather, your application will be “truly independent.” According to the candidate, her personal and political career speaks for itself: Ana Gomes wants to make use of the idea that she has always said what she thought, for better or for worse, often against the tide of her own party. She was never afraid to be upset. In other words, there are no links between parties, unlike others.
“A President free of companies and commitments, who strives for the institutions of the Republic to function with the appropriate means, with more efficiency and transparency.”
One would expect that the issue of the fight against corruption will be the cornerstone of his speech to launch the candidacy. It is Ana Gomes’s old workhorse, which was recently seen in the case of hacker Rui Pinto, but it is curious to see that Ana Gomes chose not to use the word “corruption” in his speech once. The idea, however, is there, when he says that it cannot be ignored that a part of the system “allowed itself to corrode, captured by financial, economic and other interests” and that it will be a candidate free of mischief and commitment. Ana Gomes went to the topic, but it was not with sword and shield. More transparency, more independence, more integrity, more democracy: this was the message.
“[Marisa Matias] She is an excellent candidate, she is my friend and I am sure that we will do both campaigns with elevation and guided by ideas and projects ”.
It will be one of the themes of the presidential race: Ana Gomes and Marisa Matias dispute a political space that can be transferred and it will be curious to see how the two will position themselves. This Wednesday, Marisa Matias assumed herself as “republican, secular and socialist” in allusion to the words that Mário Soares used to describe himself. But if he had already praised Marcelo – and stressed that he does not run “against” anyone, but only in favor of the country – Ana Gomes had no problem praising the member of the blockade, of whom she is a friend. Later, asked if the dispersion of votes from the left would not benefit the extreme, in this case André Ventura, Ana Gomes would continue saying that she is not a candidate to create a division, on the contrary, she is a candidate to “unite and federate.” Having the certainty that the functions of the President of the Republic are not executive, she does not govern, nor does it correspond to federate the left around a political project, the idea of Ana Gomes (and Marisa Matias) may be in mind to divide to govern. In other words, the sum of the votes from the left may be enough to force Marcelo to go to a second round, in which case the one with the most votes could support the other. But it’s another five hundred.
