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The new leader of JS, Miguel Matos, refused this Sunday to rewrite the history of this youth organization and considered the criticisms of the PS deputy, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, “unfair”.
“These criticisms are unfair, because I have already highlighted and praised the role of Sérgio Sousa Pinto in social activism in the fight for equality, that is, decriminalizing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy. In my speech it was difficult to refer to the 13 previous JS leaders, but they were all important, ”said Miguel Costa Matos.
Speaking to Lusa, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, who led the Socialist Youth in the 1990s, accused the new secretary general of Stalinism, saying that he erased his name and that of António José Seguro from the history of this youth organization.
This Sunday, at the end of the XXII National Congress of JS, which took place in digital format due to the epidemic crisis of covid-19, Miguel Matos spoke with several former leaders of this youth organization from the 70s, such as Margarida Marques and Arons de Carvalho, as well as others more recent, such as Duarte Cordeiro, Pedro Nuno Santos and Maria Begonha.
But Miguel Matos, Socialist deputy and former economic adviser to Prime Minister António Costa, in the series of former JS leaders that he mentioned, did not refer to Sérgio Sousa Pinto or the former leader of his party, António José Seguro. Sérgio Sousa Pinto considered that “this is the behavior of a Stalinist.”
“The election of a Stalinist is the worst misfortune that can happen to an organization like JS. I never thought that JS would try to erase me from his memory, “said the current president of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Faced with these accusations, Miguel Costa Matos defended that there is “a misunderstanding” that he intends to resolve “quickly” and pointed out that this issue could have been clarified “as colleagues in the PS Parliamentary Group and not in the public square.”
“I don’t want to rewrite history and I am proud of all the previous JS general secretaries. They were all important in affirming our causes. Now, in my speech, I only mentioned a few and I think it is unfair to demand that 13 former general secretaries be summoned in a speech “, reacted the new leader of JS.
In his first speech as leader, after being elected at the XXII JS Congress, Miguel Matos argued that an “unprecedented crisis”, such as the one caused by the covid-19 pandemic, must be responded to with “a strengthened one.” And he promised that JS will always be “against those who want to dismantle” the welfare state in Portugal, the right wing, and defended the “free and quality” National Health Service (SNS).
And it was in this sequence that Miguel Costa Matos demanded, before the secretary general and prime minister of the PS, António Costa, a “public education”, including higher education and public nurseries, “completely free in all teaching cycles and excellence” .
The new general secretary of JS, elected with 179 votes in favor, 17 against and six blank votes, also called for “retaliation” to the right-wing forces in the debate of ideas and attacked the “cowardly” far right for not even attacking the “weakest” in society. “The far right will never dictate to us,” he promised.
Critic of capitalism, Miguel Matos Santos said that “the invisible hand of the market cannot govern the life” of citizens, that they are not “mere numbers.”
