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Critics of the current leadership of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) criticize the party’s participation in the 25th of November celebrations, considering that it is “a farce” and is done “in the name of longed-for alliances with the center”.
On Wednesday, BE announced that it will be represented by in the evocative solemn session November 25th which will intervene, according to the party, to “denounce the devaluation operation of the 25th of April”.
But not even the “minimal” presence pleased the party’s internal opposition, who accuse the current management of siding and “adapt in the name of proximity and long-awaited alliances with the center”.
These criticisms are contained in a document to which Lusa had access, signed by members of Moção ‘E’, whose spokesperson was Pedro Soaresand that at the last Bloc convention they presented a motion opposing the current leadership.
In the document, with the title “The 25th of November blocked the revolution that brought democracy – participation in the celebration is a farce”, critics criticize BE’s decision to be present at the solemn session of the 49th anniversary of the 25th of November, this Monday in parliament, despite doing so with just one deputy.
For critics, “there will be no speech that can hide the public meaning of participation in that act that the entire right and extreme right want to be comparable to that of the 25th of April”.
“The Bloc, instead of marking the field that opposes and resists this offensive, adapts, in the name of proximity and longed-for alliances with the center, by accepting the commemoration of the 25th of November, joining it even though in shape embarrassed”, they accuse.
Critics point out that the “popular movement generated following the 25th of April profoundly marked the Portuguese political framework in the years 1974/1975, during the so-called Current Revolutionary Period (PREC)”, highlighting that the foundations of democracy, freedoms and of rights were won “on the streets, in factories, in popular neighborhoods, in schools and in rural areas” and “nothing was offered”.
“The military coup of November 25th took place after elections for the Constituent Assembly had been held in April 1975, the first condition for holding legislative elections in the near future. A compromise was established between revolutionary and parliamentary legitimacy”, says the text.
Critics consider that “the winners of the coup wanted to change the rules of the game, remove the legitimacy of popular and revolutionary initiative from the democratic equation” and wanted to “impose their own hierarchical ‘diktat’ on the Armed Forces to nullify the essential alliance with the movement popular in the revolutionary process”.
“The leaders of the coup ordered the arrest of 118 military personnel, sanitized 82 workers at RTP and Emissora Nacional and dismissed the administrations and directors of the public press, replaced by people from the PS and PPD or military personnel linked to the coup,” they say.
These leaders argue that, with the 25th of November, “the reversal of popular achievements and the destruction of many experiences of popular management began”, adding that “what was at stake was the democratic revolution of the PREC”.
“The 25th of November was prepared and directed by the PS with the PPD and the CDS, allied with the bombers and under the sponsorship of the CIA and the active United States ambassador to Portugal, Frank Carlucci, with the support of the German and Portuguese governments”, it reads.
