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The guidelines may still change in the week remaining to the XXI Congress of the PCP, but at the moment, the party does not intend to measure the temperature of delegates or members of the media who enter the Peace and Friendship Pavilion in Loures, where The works will be carried out between the 27th and 29th. No tests will be requested from the participants nor will there be an indication to install the application StayAwayCovid.
However, other health security measures will be followed and the party will show that “it is capable of holding a congress in an absolutely exceptional setting,” says Rui Braga, member of the central committee secretariat and responsible for organizing the event. The congress calendar, with the slogan “Organize, Fight, Advance – Democracy and Socialism”, will be approved on Friday at the inauguration, at 10:30 a.m., but the intention is to take the work until 8:00 p.m. at the first two days and finish Sunday noon.
In addition to not having guests and reducing delegates by half (600), they will not have tables but only chairs (to avoid contact surfaces) and they will only be able to circulate in marked, one-way corridors, with different entrances and exits – including the way up to the platform to speak. An isolation room from outside the pavilion is also planned for those with symptoms, there will be permanent cleaning of spaces, limited access to (outdoor) cafeterias and bathrooms. The restrictions extend to the media: there can only be one representative from each body permanently in the pavilion. But the entire congress will be broadcast on the PCP website and on social networks.
Contrary to usual, there will be no taverns and the organization is looking for a pavilion in the center of Loures where lunches on Fridays and Saturdays can be served in shifts to delegates and meals (including dinners) are distributed in to carry out. Measures in addition to the permanent mandatory use of a mask, dozens of hand disinfection points and aeration of the pavilion.
“It is a congress in absolutely exceptional conditions”, says Rui Braga, who compares it to the Festa do Ahead! both for the attacks suffered by the party and for the exemplary health measures adopted. “We are not ignoring the outbreak or reality, but nothing prevents us from doing so. We have conditions for that (…) It is a contribution to show that life goes on, ”he insists, adding that the organization is in permanent contact with the local health authority and that it has informed the security forces of the fact – for now. there is no announcement of demonstrations against the congress.
Escaping to answer if the possibility of relief from the curfew at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday was something providential for the party, Rui Braga prefers to comment only that the congress would always be the subject of controversy. “The question is the realization itself, not the number of participants or the health measures that we announce (…). But the state of emergency does not suspend political rights, ”the leader emphasizes, adding that the plan is being worked on with the Loures health authorities.
On the possibility of asking or recommending delegates to carry out tests in advance, Rui Braga says that the party “does not see this need” and on the measurement of temperature, something that is already common to access many services or public entities – as Parliament – says that this measure is not being considered so far (leaving the door ajar for possible additional demands that the health authority may raise in the meantime).
Even if the current weekend hour restrictions are maintained from 1:00 p.m., the PCP sees no impediment for the 600 delegates to meet until 8:00 p.m. And he argues with the statutes: the congress is a party body and the legal regime of the state of exception establishes that, even during its mandate, “the meetings of the statutory bodies of political parties, unions and professional associations shall in no case be prohibited, dissolved or submitted to prior authorization ”.
In the early hours of the afternoon, public criticism had arisen from the words of Jorge Pires, from the political committee of the central committee, after leaving the Infarmed meeting. Asked about the fact that the PCP holds the congress at this stage of the pandemic, the leader recalled that he had already seen this “movie” because of the Festa do Ahead!, denounced the discrimination suffered in relation to other facts. “We have every guarantee that the congress will go well and there will not be an outbreak there.” Regarding the criticism from the right, especially from the PSD, he said: “If they seize power with a decree of the state of emergency… What are they not going to ban? That is also why we do not agree with the state of emergency. “
