1. It is with an understandable pleasure that we, the PCP, who for years has been fighting on behalf of this important cause and given a decisive contribution for the success of this struggle, would like to greet this important victory of YES and its deep meaning.
The victory of YES represents an affirmation of progressive and civilizational values, an expression of tolerance and respect for the convictions of each and every Portuguese, an important victory for women and the right to defend their dignity and health. The victory of YES represents an unmistakable act of democracy and freedom, which honours the values and heritage of the April Revolution.
2. It is now time, without further delay, to accept and implement the result of the referendum and the opinion expressed by the Portuguese men and women. It is time for all and each and every one who defended YES to assume, without any hesitations, the responsibilities deriving from this outcome and to honour the assumed pledges.
3. At a time when the compliance with the results means an imperious and urgent need to conclude the legislative process started in the Assembly of the Republic, the PCP draws attention that those in favour of NO will not refrain from executing manoeuvres and pressures, under the excuse on the non binding character of the referendum (and contrary to everything, in the opposite sense, argued in 1998 refusing the rightful legitimacy of the Parliament to approve a law on depenalization) and helped by the long process of yielding and wavering, that the process of depenalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy has met in the field of those who speak on its defence.
4. The PCP thus stands for a quick materialization of the legislative process, contributing to avoid prolonging the lost time and to adopt decisions fully complying with the meaning and content of the referendum and its outcome.
5. In a context in which the figure of the referendum has been continuously used as an instrument to prevent and postpone the depenalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, the victory of YES puts an end to a long dilatory process, and leaves no excuses to the field of those who, always resorting to artificial manoeuvres, have tried to prevent it. As the voting citizens have affirmed, the power always held by the Assembly of the Republic to solve this issue is absolutely clear and unquestionable and from now on it should assume it without any zigzagging. Having achieved this result, in which the PCP, in line with its long lasting struggle, was actively involved, it is necessary to register the proven inadequacy of resorting to the figure of referendum on matters that the Assembly of the Republic could and should have, assumed. A decision that not only meant lost time but also an opportunity used by the right to reassume, with a breath it had long lost, the list of the most backward arguments and unscrupulous moral and religious feelings, that have created conservative and reactionary cleavages in the Portuguese society and which it will not refrain from using in the context of a wider fight against the rights, the freedoms and the democratic regime.
6. The expressive results obtained in the areas where the PCP has greater influence, as it is now possible to gather, are an expression of the decisive engagement and contribution lent by the action and information campaign led by the PCP.
To the organisations, the militants, sympathizers and friends of the Party, our allies in CDU and all those who, genuinely and sincerely, were engaged in this struggle, placing above their individual or group interests the higher value of the dignity of women, I would like to say a word of greeting and a strong pledge by the PCP to continue, without hesitations, the path till the approval of a legal regime, in line with the values of democracy and freedom, which we defend and for which we fight.
