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Presidential candidate Marisa Matias said on Saturday that “Portugal is afflicted”, but defended that the economic and social crisis did not begin with the covid-19 pandemic and that the next president cannot “be an ornament.”
In the formal presentation of her candidacy in Lisbon, the MEP and BE leader repeatedly evoked María de Lourdes Pintasilgo, the only prime minister of Portugal, and recalled her candidacy for Belém in 1986, to recall another crisis scenario. .
“This fatalism was overcome and the policy in Portugal was changed, it was changed in the protection of reforms and pensions, in the recovery of income, in the development of public services, preventing new privatizations, the country won with the reinforcement of the left and with popular mobilization. I deeply believe that my candidacy was part of this change that broke the austerity cycle and allowed the country to breathe and recover ”, he defended.
Recovering the motto “Caring for the future”, created by María de Lourdes Pintasilgo, at the end of the nineties of the 20th century, which later gave its name to her foundation and with which she titled the report that she prepared, in 1998, as president of the Commission Independent of Population. and Quality of Life, Marisa Matias considered that her candidacy for the presidential elections will represent people who “on the left do not lower their arms and build solutions for the country.”
And he stressed that his candidacy is “a candidacy of those who, like María de Lourdes Pintasilgo, believe in the power of dialogue. Of those who believe that we can have a different policy. Even different. “And he reinforced:” Like Pintasilgo, I know that the presidential elections are not above politics. Whoever holds the presidency will not be an adornment in the decisive decisions that lie ahead. “
In her 20-minute speech, the candidate referred to the current context of the health, economic and social crisis. “Its effects fall unevenly on the population, the poorest and the forgotten are always the first victims, unemployment is a plague, vulnerability has grown. In short, Portugal is afflicted, “he warned, underlining that” the pandemic accelerated the economic and social crisis, but did not invent it.
“It was not the covid that pushed tens of thousands of young people to get on bicycles and motorcycles for door-to-door delivery services, without a contract and without rights. It was not the covid that created the clandestine homes, where so many elderly are mistreated. It was not the covid that invented the pride of the bosses who close the door, fire the workers and set up a new company next door, ”he said.
The candidate considered that the current crisis shows that “the strength of the country is not in wealth, it is not in fortunes”, but “in the common, starting with the National Health Service.” And he said: “That is the strong point of my program: democracy is what it is for everyone, for everyone and for everyone.”
Marisa Matias criticized “second-hand politicians” (among whom was US President Donald Trump) who attack “workers, the poor, women, immigrants.” And she defended: “The response to our structural problems imposes courageous measures of public control, reinforcement of incompatibilities, investigation and repression of economic, financial and fiscal crime, of strategic options for the environment and employment.”
Before the candidate – who arrived accompanied by the BE coordinator, Catarina Martins, and deputy Mariana Mortágua – spoke her national representative, the director of the National Theater D. María II, Tiago Rodrigues.
Also present were the parliamentary leader of the BE, Pedro Filipe Soares, the vice president of the Assembly of the Republic José Manuel Pureza, several deputies, the founders Fernando Rosas and Luís Fazenda, as well as the former deputy of the UDP Mário Tomé (current member of the BE )). Professor Eduardo Paz Ferreira, former Director General of Health Constantino Sakellarides and writer José Luís Peixoto also attended.
