Press Conference - Lisbon, 18th February 2013
The Central Committee (CC) of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), in its meeting on the 17th of February 2013, proceeded to evaluate the political, economic and social situation and defined the main lines of Party action for the immediate future.
Regarding the situation of the country, the CC called attention to the continuous degradation of the economic and social situation, as a result of
the policies of the current government and the implementation of the Aggression Pact [the agreement with the IMF, UE and European Central Bank] subscribed by the Social-Democratic Party (PSD) and Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) [both forces compose the coalition government] and the Socialist Party (PS), which has served as the justification to impose a program of exploitation, regression and decline that compromises the life of millions of Portuguese and the future of the country and the new generations.
The evolution of the GDP in 2012, now known after the Court of Auditors published information regarding the 4th Trimester, correspond to a 3.2%
economic recession – particularly grave given that the values for the last semester are that of a 3.8% retraction and the estimates for 2013 by
several institutions, namely that of the Bank of Portugal, smashed the government's macro-economic forecasts – and constitute, in itself, an
implicit denouncement of the path of disaster of the government's right-wing policies. A path of disaster that is made clear in the unprecedented unemployment rate already verified in the end of 2012 (25.3%, in the broad sense, corresponding to more than a million four hundred and
thirty thousand unemployed).
If the more optimistic estimates for the evolution of the country are confirmed, Portugal will reach the end of 2013, two and a half years after
the Pact of Aggression, with an accumulated recession of at least 7.7% and more than 400 thousand jobs destroyed.
In this context of destruction of the national economy and social collapse, the fanciful success of the "return to the markets" constitutes a
propaganda operation aimed to distract from the serious problems of the country and the origin of the causes of the current crisis. In an operation
coordinated with a group of banks and conducted after guarantees given by the European Central Bank (ECB) of purchase in the secondary market of public debt of countries with "adjustment programs", the interest rate of 4.891% on loans is not only unsustainable, but is also superior to that
achieved by Ireland (3.2%) and that of the loan being replaced.
The Central Committee of PCP calls attention to the maneuvers that aim to dissociate the so-called IMF report and the so-called refoundation of the
State from the general objectives of the right-wing policy that have been developed for a long time by the hand of the PSD, CDS and PS. Given the
confessed availability of PS to collaborate with the government in destroying the social functions of the State and to pursue the current
policies – which the "Coimbra Document" confirms – PCP alerts to the projects that aim to perpetuate, beyond the Aggression Pact and its formal
expression, all that was justified in its name, namely the liquidation of rights, the increase in levels of exploitation and the deepening of
national dependency and submission.
The entry into force of the so-called budget treaty and the transposition of its restrictions and conditions into the Budgetary Framework Law –
subscribed by the current government with the support of PS – represent a significant and unacceptable attack on national sovereignty. A treaty that is part of the ongoing larger process of reconfiguration of the European Union and its Economic and Monetary Union and that aims to further
concentrate the power in big capital and the main European powers.
In addition, the recent agreement achieved in the European Council relative to the Multi-annual Budgetary Framework of the European Union for 2014/2020 is profoundly negative for the country and reveals the fallacious "economic and social cohesion" and European "solidarity". However the PSD/CDS government and PS try to fool the Portuguese people, the truth is that Portugal loses more than a million euros per day during the period between 2014 and 2020.
The ongoing intense offensive, based on the application of the Aggression Pact signed with the Troika, the concession of instruments of economic and budgetary policy and the alienation of sovereignty, aims to increase the domination of big monopolist capital, particularly financial, handing over an increasing part of the produced wealth and State resources, and alienating, through privatizations, companies fundamental for economic
development.
An offensive translated in an increase of exploitation of labor, through a decrease in wages, an increase in precariousness, easing lay-offs, attacks
on fundamental rights, but also the devaluing of pensions, a drastic decrease in social benefits and the dismantling of the remaining social
functions of the State. A policy that also attacks the democratic regime itself, in several of its foundations, assuming particular intensity in the attempt to destroy local democratic power, be it by the restriction of its autonomy or the increasing financial asphyxia imposed on municipalities.
A concerning aspect of the evolution of the situation is the increase of exploitation, corruption, cronyism, traffic of influence, use of public
money for personal enrichment and other structural components of the capitalist system that are leading to a loss of credibility of the State
and the democratic regime. The scandalous operations favoring the banks, plagued by harmful management; the patent promiscuity between political and economic interests, visible in the revolving door between private management and government; and lies become criteria for political behavior constitute elements that, while part of the right-wing policies and those of big capital, jeopardize democracy itself.
The Central Committee of PCP underlines the necessary and unpostponable rupture with right-wing policies.
PCP, faithful to its traditions and valuable heritage of struggle for convergence and unity against right-wing policies and conscious of the
social and political situation of the country, addresses and presents to the Portuguese people, the democrats and patriots, the objectives and main
axes for an alternative policy approved by the XIX Congress: valuing work and workers; the defense of productive sectors and national production; the affirmation of social property and the role of the State in the economy; a quality public administration and public services at the service of the
country; the democratization and promotion of the access to sport, culture and the defense of cultural heritage; the defense of the environment,
territorial planning and the promotion of an effective regional development; the defense of the democratic regime of April and the fulfillment of the Republican Constitution; the effective subordination of the economic power to political power; the affirmation of a free and sovereign Portugal, and of a Europe of peace and cooperation.
Corresponding to the deepest anxieties and needs of our people, these elements of an alternative policy constitute the answer to the serious
situation affecting the country. Assuming them as the reference towards a patriotic and left-wing alternative, PCP is available to debate and deepen
these ideas with forces, sectors and democratic individualities, towards a convergence against the right-wing policy.
A policy and a patriotic and left-wing government is possible, one that places front and center the rights of the great majority of the Portuguese
people and the national interests. Portugal has men and women, serious and honorable people, forces, values and energies that are able to break the cycle of governments of right-wing policies, and embody a political solution at the service of the workers, people and country.
In the framework of the struggle for building an alternative, we once again highlight the irreplaceable role of the worker's and population's struggle.
Today, as yesterday, the mass struggle and its development are the indispensable instrument to break with the current path of disaster and
open a way towards the construction of a patriot and left-wing policy and government.
In its meeting, the Central Committee also defined the main lines of party action regarding the reinforcement of its political organization and
intervention, namely dynamize the campaign "For an alternative, patriot and left-wing policy"; the vast program of commemoration of the Centenary of Álvaro Cunhal; the party action to guarantee a strong expression in the commemorations of the International Woman's Day, the Student Day and the National Youth Day, the 25th of April, and to ensure that May 1st constitutes a powerful day of struggle of Portuguese workers; the commemorations of the 92th anniversary of the Party and the preparation of the 27th edition of the Avante! Festival, on the 6-8th of September; as well as the continuation of the preparations for the municipal elections in October, affirming CDU, which should constitute a moment of broadening of political and electoral influence indispensable for a rupture with right-wing policies and the struggle for the construction of a patriot and left-wing policy.
