Manuel de Almeida / Lusa
Luís Marques Mendes during the presentation of the Honor Commission of his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic
Pinto Balsmanha leaves a message with several warnings. Political Commission of the candidate for the Presidency of the Republic started.
The presidential candidate Marques Mendes announced this Wednesday that, if elected, it will create a department “For permanent contact with the Portuguese communities” and argued that the migrants may be available to face -to -face, postal and electronic vote.
In the manifesto entitled “Portuguese communities – my commitment”Marques Mendes states that “Portugal are the millions of Portuguese living in the country and then help him to grow and develop”.
“But also the other millions of Portuguese who, outside Portugal, honor our past, value our present and strengthen our future perspectives,” reads the document.
The candidate recalled initiatives that he took in the area of communities, such as the creation of the international RTP in the 1990s, as well as his role for the consecration in the constitution of the right of vote of the Portuguese emotional elections.
For the future, it promises to create a department for permanent contact with the Portuguese communities, through which it expects to defend causes and respect priorities, such as “making the Portuguese communities a great strategic asset from Portugal ”.
Marques Mendes wants to “reinforce the bet on culture, language and teaching of Portuguese” and the political participation of the Portuguese who reside abroad.
For this increase in the political participation of emigrants, Marques Mendes argues that they have three voting options: “ face -to -face, postal and electronic vote“.
“It is necessary to create conditions in this sense. To stimulate greater civic and political participation. To reinforce the primacy of citizenship,” he continued.
Invest in modernization of consulates abroad abroad, “essential to support the Portuguese of the diaspora”, and the consideration of the conditions of return of the reformed Portuguese are other purposes of this candidate.
“The country needs to take steps that prevent the Portuguese from returning to be taxed penalized. This issue is also essential for another reason: a retired Portuguese who returns is a Portuguese who can invest in Portugal, often in interior regions, strengthening territorial cohesion. Portugal also passes here”, reads in the manifesto.
Marques Mendes promises to “value the institutions of the diaspora”, such as the Portuguese Diaspora Council and the Portuguese Communities Council.
Balsmanian warnings
The political commission around the candidacy of Mendes Marks The presidency of the Republic began working on Tuesday, about four months from the presidential elections.
There are several PSD figures on the list: Sebastião Bugalho, José Eduardo Martins, Rita Marques Guedes, Teresa Patrício Gouveia, Carlos Incarnation, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Arlindo Cunha and António Pinto Leite.
Diogo Feio, from CDS, also participates. And there are several independents: Francisco Mendes da Silva, André Sampaio, Tiago Duarte, David Lopes, Carla Quevedo, José Gomes Mendes, Afonso Reis Cabral, Albérico Fernandes, Raquel Vaz Pinto and João Perestrello.
The president is Francisco Pinto Balsmanha, which is noted that it will be difficult to put Marques Mendes in Belém.
For several factors: “It won’t be easy the mission we have ahead, with municipal elections along the way, the Diversity of candidates the presidency of the Republic for all tastes and a population still injured by the calamity of fires and the brutal Accident in Lisbon With the painful consequences that we all regret ”, warns the historic founder of the PSD in a message addressed to the members of the Political Commission of Marques Mendes presidential candidacy, to which Lusa had access.
Balsmanha did not go to the event, for health reasons, and leaves other warnings: it is necessary to “close rows” at a time when they extend “malicious quarrels provoked and used by obscene political interests who feed on other people’s misfortunes ”.
The former prime minister fears that Portuguese voters, with three trips to votes within a few months, be more unbelieving from the “voting value” and fears “discouragement and assignment to abstention ”.
“But it is in these moments that the moods of militancy have to come up, to gain wrist and close rows around the candidate to pass the message of hope in the better future, with Dr. Luís Marques Mendes in the presidency of the Republic.
