The candidate for January’s presidential elections was received with a round of applause while standing at the Left Bloc (BE) Convention. For Catarina Martins“the free, fair and supportive society of article 1 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic has yet to be built” and “reclaiming this horizon is our task”.
The presidential candidate supported by Left Bloc Convention (BE), Catarina Martins, came out today in defense of utopias against “those who benefit from the system of maximum exploitation” and called on the left to know how to listen and “join forces” against “exploitation and indecency”.
“A few days ago, in a debate, one of the men in the system told me that utopias are dangerous things. He’s right: they are a danger for those who benefit from the system of maximum exploitation in which we live. And that’s why those who have the most, bet so much on those who discard utopias to ensure that everything stays the same”, criticized Catarina Martins in an intervention at the 14th BE National Convention, in Lisbon.
The candidate for January’s presidential elections, who livened up the second day of the blocists’ convention and was received with a round of applause, criticized anyone who wants to convince “that if someone stumbles next to us, they will let them fall and go over them” and stated that “the maximum profit tramples on many lives”.
“On the left, our power is knowing that when we hold hands to protect someone who stumbles beside us from falling, or when we are stumbling and someone takes our hand and holds us, in that moment when we hold hands we take our eyes off the ground and look each other in the eye. And then there is hope, because there is empathy, solidarity”, he appealed.
From the perspective of the candidate for Belém, “the free, fair and supportive society of article 1 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic has yet to be built” and “reclaiming this horizon is our task”.
“This model did not fail us, it failed the path to get there. Let us do it again, therefore. Reinvent democracy. Reinvent the country. Let us know how to listen and join forces against exploitation and indecency. Let us know how to learn to multiply the best that we are. This is how we have to do it in the country, this is how we have to do it on the left”, he appealed.
In her intervention, Catarina Martins also targeted “the indecent thugs in parliament”, in an allusion to Chega.
“When some indecent bullies in Parliament want to choose by nickname which children can or cannot attend school, I know that they do not represent the country we are. The country we are does not choose which children they want to push out of school. The country we are gets to work so that there is school for all children”, he defended.
In the final phase of her speech, Catarina Martins left a word for the outgoing coordinator, Mariana Mortágua, who will succeed her in the role in 2023: “We do not choose the time we live in, but we choose to walk together. We continue together, thank you”.
Addressing José Manuel Pureza – who is expected to leave this convention as national coordinator –, the former coordinator and MEP wished him good luck.
“We are lucky to have someone who knows how to talk about Marxism with Pope Francis. We are lucky to have someone who has made peace studies his career in these times”, he praised.
With LUSA
