(dr) CM Loures
Ricardo Leão, president of Loures City Council
After the speech of two PT mayors who agreed with Chega’s guidelines, the party is concerned about the municipal elections, which will take place in 2025. Assis spoke of “guidelines”. But what are they? Not even the PS knows.
In the PS, there are those who believe in a humanistic approach. There are also those who want to prepare a script or even those who just defend a more pragmatic discourse, says .
Still, the parties believe that the space for debate on the topics of social support and immigrationtopics on which the mayors of Alpiarça and Loures focused with an approach similar to that of André Ventura, cannot be reserved for Chega.
Yes, according to the politicians interviewed by the Observer unanimously, there must be a guideline to be adopted by mayors regarding issues in which mayors cannot veer towards populism.
To the , Francisco Assis spoke of “guidelines”. But what are they?
“The next Congress must approve a line of guidance to recognize that the increase in the population stock has an impact both on the birth rate and on migration”, says the deputy André Pinotes Batista. “What is wrong is that there is no guideline”, assumes the leader of the Setúbal PS federation, who regrets that the “discussion is being reactive and unstructured”.
This socialist has now implemented in his district a Agenda for Humanist Migrationscoordinated by the former Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Patrícia Gaspar, and the current mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas. The objectives go through promote programs inclusion of young immigrants in local and sports associations.
“The increase in migratory flow brings pressure on the social state. Without humanist intervention among these populations, and if nothing is done, there will be problems in the long term”, guarantees Pinotes Batista.
Eurico Brilhante Dias, one of the socialists who had already criticized the mayor of Alpiarça Sónia Sanfona for her speech that approached populism, believes that, now, “speeches became more vocal and with less shame“, a path already “explored by the right” and that “did not start today”.
“There is a certain pressure on ‘subsidiodependence’ and the construction of a discussion that puts poor against the very poor”, says the socialist.
The deputy Francisco Caesar talks about “rigor”: “being left-wing” cannot be synonymous with “not being rigorous” and “penalizing those who effectively it’s not your fault none of the attitudes of family members, he said. It refers to the speech of the two mayors, that of Loures, Ricardo Leão, who spoke about and that of Alpiarça who mentioned the “parents of children who receive subsidies.
Porfirio Silvaformer deputy and director of Ação Socialista, believes that the PS cannot “imitate the extreme right” and has to “deepen the debate about the best responses to be given to the problems that each territory has”. “This debate has never been interrupted and will never be interrupted. It is ongoing and is shared among all those who have responsibilities”, he says.
But Pedro Ribeiropresident of the Chamber of Almeirim, also warns of the fact that “Some leftists see fascists everywhere“, so these comparisons with Chega cannot discourage socialist mayors: they must still pay attention to the most sensitive issues.
