PCP has a new Central Committee — and the objective of coming to power by taking voters away from the PS

The 22nd Communist Congress ends this Sunday and leaves Almada with a smaller, younger and more feminine leadership. Raimundo elected unanimously.

The PCP closes its 22nd Congress this Sunday, in Almada, with the publication of the results of the election for the executive management bodies — Secretariat and Political Commission — and a closing speech by the secretary general, Paulo Raimundo.

Saturday, the proposed composition of the new Central Committee of the PCP was approved by the delegates to the party’s Congress with 98.6% of votescounting on 959 votes in favor, six against and eight abstentions.

After the election, the new Central Committee — a leadership with fewer members, younger and more women than the previous one — met behind closed doors, to debate and elect its executive bodies: Political Commission and Secretariat.

This Sunday, the party’s two executive bodies were unanimously elected by the Central Committee, as well as the general secretary, Paulo Raimundo, who chose not to vote for his candidacy.

Raimundo talks about a “very demanding situation”

Friday, in the opening speech of the Congress, Paulo Raimundo accused the PS of complicity with the Government – warning that, in the current national situation, “you cannot sit on the fence” -, and considered that a “ anti-communist offensive and a global disinformation campaign.”

The secretary general of the PCP also called for a “widening of the convergence of democrats and patriots” to break with right-wing policies and acknowledged that the party has faced “a very demanding framework”.

“We need to recruit more, receiving and integrating those who join the party, but above all we need to take the initiative to contact, mobilize and invite them to join the party”, he said.

Jerônimo and AD’s “hot back”

The former general secretary of the PCP Jerome de Sousa resorted to the History of the last century to support the thesis that communists faced extremely adverse circumstances at various times, directions followed one another, but they always knew how to rise up.

“What history tells us is that the PCP, faced with the greatest difficulties and adversities it faced, always found strength to rise up and move forward and fulfill its commitments to the workers and the people”, he declared.

In a ten-minute intervention, which received a standing ovation from the communist delegates and in which he acknowledged his party’s current difficulties in the face of a “counter-revolutionary process that has been going on for 48 years”, Jerónimo de Sousa sought above all to de-dramatize the conditions of the present time and convey a message of confidence regarding the future.

“Anyone who looks at the history of the PCP will see that, since the distant years of its foundation, it never had an easy life, but it never gave up. Illegalized almost at birth, he did not accept the sentence of his liquidation and set out to fight for the conquest of freedom and democracy, taking the greatest risks and going through the darkest circumstances”, he said.

Regarding the last years of national politics, the previous leader did not comment on the “Geringonça” experienceduring which time he led the PCP, with the party supporting minority PS executives in parliament. He spoke only in global terms, saying that “the AD (Democratic Alliance) Government, with the warm backs of the Liberal Initiative and Chega, wants to take the counter-revolutionary process further in Portugal.

Afterwards, he made a vigorous defense about the usefulness of the PCP’s action. “Where would the liquidation of the achievements of April and the democratic regime, the exploitation of labor itself, which would be more profound, not for the constant, firm and loyal struggle of the PCP?” he asked.

João Oliveira: “it was difficult”

For the MEP, “multiple scenarios can be conjectured, but without reinforcement of the PCP, aspirations for change will not be achieved as expected”, said João Oliveira: “being indispensable to the construction of the alternative, the PCP will be equally indispensable to a government that give it expression.”

The PCP MEP stated that the party managed to face a “difficult and demanding” period in the last four years, highlighting that they wanted it “defeated and in disarray”, but found it “firm and united”.

Oliveira highlighted that the period that has passed since the party’s last major meeting, in 2020, “was difficult and demanding”, due to “the degradation of living conditions, the worsening of inequalities and social injustices, the worrying developments in the international situation, especially the pandemic and the escalation of confrontation and war”.

To these “particularly negative” elements, the PCP MEP said that a further “violent offensive against the party”“with the aim of conditioning or even preventing” their action and affirmation of their political positions.

João Oliveira argued that the party faced “all these battles with the courage and determination that characterize the PCP and the struggle of more than 100 years of Portuguese communists”.

“They wanted us defeated and in disarray, but they found us firm and united. They wanted us silent, cowering and isolated, but they found us nonconformist, determined, pointing the way to meet the masses and confirming, with them, the strength and reason for being of our conditions”, he stated, in an intervention that raised delegates present at Congress.

Oliveira also pointed out how solution “to shift broad sectors of society to the left, whether in the social and electoral base of other parties, such as the PS”“either by capturing the discontent and revolt that reactionary projects seek to instrumentalize in their favor”.

Accounts with a positive balance between 2020 and 2023

The party achieved a positive financial result between 2020 and 2023 of around 732 thousand euros average annuallyannounced director Manuela Pinto Ângelo, who warned, however, that difficulties still persist.

The member of the Central Committee Secretariat highlighted that the party’s accounts between 2020 and 2023 “confirm that the party’s financing is based on its own revenues and resources”, with 91% of total revenue arising directly from “quotas, contributions from activists, elected officials and members of polling stations, donations from friends and supporters or fund initiatives”.

The PCP leader highlighted, however, that, despite the financial result of the last four years being “important”, “it would be a mistake and an illusion to think that all the difficulties and the situation of significant financial imbalance” referred to in the last congress had been overcome.

Among the “unresolved shortcomings”, Manuela Pinto Ângelo highlighted in particular the fact “that the vast majority of regional organizations still do not guarantee sufficient resources for their needs”.

“And we are facing a result that depends on institutional revenues, which represent 9% do totaland other non-permanent and cyclical extraordinary revenues, therefore not being the guarantee of financial balance”, he stressed.

In an allusion to the fact that only 31.7% of party members currently pay dues – which, in the theses, is considered as “insufficient for needs” – the PCP leader highlighted that, “in party financing, membership fees are the most regular and stable own revenue”.

Manuela Pinto Ângelo argued that it is necessary to implement measures “to increase the number of comrades paying the quotatalking to each one about the importance of keeping the quota up to date and increasing its value” and “increasing the number of comrades who receive quotas and increasing payment through banking so that the quotation is increasingly reflected in the strengthening the party’s financial situation.

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At the 22nd Congress of the PCP, there are 1,012 delegates, the majority of whom were men (63.1%)and with a average age of 49 years, as indicated this Saturday by Vera Furão, from the mandate verification commission. According to the age composition indicated by Vera Furão, 38% of delegates to Congress are between 31 and 50 years old, 22% are between 51 and 64 years old and 24% are over 64 years old. Delegates up to 30 years old represent 15% of the total.