1. Having met on 7th. January, the Political Committee of the PCP analysed aspects following the calling of early legislative elections and debated the preparatory work of PCP's electoral intervention.
2. In the on-going electoral framework, the Political Committee notes as particularly significant the confirmation that PSD and CDS-PP have nothing good or new to offer to the country and that the positions and guidelines put forward by the chief candidate for PS's leadership continue, essentially, to be same that negatively marked PS' government during the past 6 years. In this scope, and among many others, the Political Committee of the PCP stresses, in view of its special seriousness, the insistence on creating uninominal electoral circles (conceived to administratively change the national party and political scene pointing to the creation of a two-party system) and the acceptance, previously always denied by PS, of the reduction of the numbers of deputies long claimed by PSD.
3. The PSD outlines the importance of carrying out plenary meetings of PCP's militants to debate the situation following the local elections and which aim at mobilizing the indispensable contribution of the opinion and reflection of the Party members in defining the Party's guidelines and lines of work in the present situation.
4. In view of the leadership's working preparation of the legislative elections foreseen in the previous meeting of the Central Committee, the Political Committee announces the holding of a Central Committee meeting on January 19th, and intends to hold, on January 16th,among other important initiatives, a National Meeting of the PCP on legislative elections.
5. Acknowledging the text and the names of the underwriters of a petition demanding the holding on an Extraordinary Congress of the PCP, in an initiative promoted by members of the Party in collision with the Party's charter principles, the PCP's Political Committee stresses that this is a reproachful action and that, like others, is manifestly conceived by its main promoters, not to help the Party to overcome its difficulties and find the best ways for its political affirmation and electoral strengthening, but, taking advantage of the legitimate and conceivable concerns, dissatisfactions and worries of the members of the Party with the local government election results, to revive disagreements, resentments and conflicts that took place during the preparation of the 16th. Congress and disputing the political mandate of the democratically elected leadership, creating a situation of tension and disturbance at the threshold of a demanding and difficult electoral battle.
Under these terms, the Political Committee of the PCP will not propose to the Central Committee to exercise its exclusive right to summon a Congress.
6. The Political Committee draws attention to the fact that, besides the deep seated reasons previously referred which determined its disagreement with this proposal, the summoning of an Extraordinary Congress at the threshold of elections, even though many signers of the petition have not taken this into account, it would be unrealistic in practical terms and damaging in political terms, and from the point of view of its main promoters, its wording has only in mind achieving a "capital of grievances" which, eventually, will serve in the future for new and more serious attitudes.
And the proof lies in the fact that the main promoters of the petition know very well that the elections are set for 17th. March, that the candidates' slates have to be presented by 4th February and that the unforeseen call of early elections demands, the urgent undertaking of several urgent and complex decisions and practical, organisational and political measures.
And so, the main promoters of the petition are surely aware that the holding of an Extraordinary Congress, would lead to the paralysis of many of these decisions, a true vacuum of guideline, and irremediably delay the preparation of PCP's electoral intervention and seriously weaken the PCP in view of the other electoral competitors.
7. At the same time, we cannot overlook that, in articles published in the last times, members of the Party, who by the way appear among the promoters of the circulation of the referred petition, are adopting opinions and proposals that, while seriously distorting the actions and guidelines of their Party (of which they were themselves co-authors and co-responsible a year ago) are particularly convenient to the PS at this pre-electoral conjuncture.
In this respect, it is particularly shocking that members of the Party, in opposition to fact and elementary political evidence, consider that the PCP has treated PS as its "main enemy", that it is the PCP who "shoved PS to the right", in a set of analyses in which there is clearly an increasing condoning of the PS and an equally increasing and unfair responsibilisation of PCP for the difficulties created in materializing an alternative of the left.
It should also be noted that, in some of these texts, there is an open defence of conceptions which question PCP's stands and guidelines in view of the PS government and its policy and the issue of the struggle for an alternative of the left, which were considered in the 16th. Congress and, at the time, it should be noted, without explicit disagreements and alternative proposals.
8. The Political Committee appeals to all militants, in spite of differences of opinion, to contribute constructively through reflection and action so that the PCP, in the coming electoral struggle, can stand up to its democratic and national responsibilities and, in unity and confidence, win this important challenge and give more strength to the just aspirations of the Portuguese workers and people.