Updating
In a letter sent to BE activists, the coordinator announces that she will not run for a new mandate.
Mariana Mortágua states in the letter sent to members that, when taking stock of her mandate, she considers that she did not fulfill the objectives set when she took over the coordination of the party, around two and a half years ago.
Two and a half years ago, when I decided to run for coordination of the Left Bloc, I knew the difficult political conditions of the left and our party. After the collapse of the PS’s absolute majority and with the reinforcement of the right and extreme right, other paths had to be found.
I consider that this objective was not achieved. Not only because the reduction of the Bloc’s electoral space continued, but also because the renovation we carried out at the time did not prove to be sufficient to relaunch our social intervention.
Politics, like life, is us and our circumstances. In these two and a half years, the precipitation of successive electoral campaigns took space and time from our internal reflection and hindered an effective transformation of the Bloc’s functioning. The leadership headed by me was unable to reverse the excessive centralization of the Bloc’s structure and generate a new political and electoral impulse. We are well aware of the committed hate campaigns of our opponents, but the truth is that we have not managed to neutralize them.
In view of this balance and now that I have completed the mandate given to me in the last Convention, I inform you that I decided not to run for a new term as coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda. I make this decision with the peace of mind that the constant support of all my comrades has given me throughout this time. I do this because I believe that the Bloc will benefit from having, in coordination and in parliament, people with better conditions than those I currently have to give voice to the party. It will be up to each of the motions present at the next Convention to present their alternative directions. Plurality strengthens us.
The left in general – and the Bloc in particular – is going through a difficult period and it is not just in our country. At Bloco, we are proud to bring together different generations, experiences and sensibilities that are an essential part of the popular struggle in Portugal, in the fights at work, at home, against wars and for the self-determination of the people of the world.
These are the times we live in and the Bloco has the history, the ideas, the coherence and the militancy to face them and to surprise once again those who are determined to attack us. We are not afraid and we will defeat the new fascists and all oppression with the strength of the socialist idea. I will be part of this path, as I have been for almost twenty years. I trust this party, the people who make it. Count on me.
