At stake is an independent candidacy for Santiago do Cacém that was supported by both parties. The communist leader guarantees that the CDU will maintain the autarchy as well as regain the Chamber of Beja.
Flags high and voices tuned to set the rhythm of the CDU caravan in Beja. During the tour through the city, the general secretary of the PCP said that the streets reflect well the socialist management of the last four years
“It’s a management, I would say, that is full of holes as we saw and stopped. Now, we need to put Beja back on the path it was on, which, due to various circumstances, was interrupted”, said Paulo Raimundo, general secretary of the PCP.
In the last local elections, the CDU was a thousand votes behind the winner. In the legislative elections, Chega was the majority force. Results that the CDU prefers to devalue
“That doesn’t count at all, what counts are candidates that people know, programs that people know, an experience that people know from previous CDU administrations and people need to recover that. And that’s what we’re betting on”, says Paulo Raimundo.
In this local authority battle, the CDU wants to regain what it lost and consolidate the local authorities it already has. In Santiago do Cacém, a communist stronghold, there are parties that unite to defeat the PCP. PS and PSD joined forces around an independent candidacy.
“This part of the PS, the PSD, the CDS and the Liberal Initiative made this deal closed at the highest level, which was hidden, camouflaged, but is now out in the open. They came together to pay for speculative interests, they came together to pay for the deals. And dear friends and comrades, if there is one thing that these local elections show and reveal, it is that there are those who want to grab this territory, there are those who want to get their hands on the Alentejo coast”, says Raimundo.
It remains to be seen whether this sham marriage will be able to break the communist cycle that it has led for almost half a century.
