Comrades, The PCP's Program “An Advanced Democracy - The Values of April in the Future of Portugal” remains valid and up-to-date. It is an indispensable tool for our Party's organized action.

Just as the nationalisations were a central feature of the revolutionary process, from their implementation through the actions of the People-Armed Forces Alliance to their enshrinement in the Constitution of the Republic on April 2, 1976, the privatisations were also one of the central elements of the counter-revolutionary process, first in the reconstruction of monopoly capitalism and the power of the big families, later on in the denationalisation of the economy and many of its strategic sectors, with the consequences that are there to see: the destruction of the productive apparatus and

The elections in the United States of America, with the degrading spectacle of the electoral campaign, as well as the opaque and undemocratic nature of the electoral system, portray the marked level of degradation reached by the US political system, which however arrogates to itself the right to give the world lessons in ‘democracy’. A system in which mechanisms and manoeuvres aimed at subverting the popular expression multiply, starting with the control of campaign funding by economic and financial groups, including those in the arms sector.

On behalf of the Portuguese Communist Party, I would like to greet all those present here and express special thanks to the artists and all those involved in the cultural event that we had the privilege of attending at this memorial session, at a time when tomorrow, September 12, marks 100 years since the birth of Amílcar Cabral. A greeting to the diplomatic representatives of the Angolan, Cape Verdean, Chinese, Cuban, Mozambican and East Timorese states, who honoured us with their presence.