Speaking on the Seventh National Convention of the Left Bloc, the coordinator Francisco Louçã appealed to the union of the left so build a converged and necessary “response with a socialist policy to meet the country's problems." The Portuguese party coordinator has criticized the agreement signed between Troika, and the three parties - SP, SDP and CDS, characterized as "the irresponsibility of bankruptcy" in contrast with the "responsibility of the socialist left." The Portuguese prime minister has once more announced the agreement without giving an explanation to the country about the cuts in health, education, pensions and unemployment subsidies, on the dismissal of public sector employees, the privatizations and 100 000 additional unemployed. “The recent agreement with the IMF, led socialist party to the greatest shift on the right of ever", F.  Louçã considered.

Speaking about the crisis responsible, the coordinator said that "The state is indebted to encourage speculation," and highlighted the "alliance between banking and real estate". In order to fight the crisis, Left Bloc, alternatively, proposes the renegotiation of debt "to protect wages, pensions and jobs" and an "ambitious" tax reform based on three new taxes: on urban speculation on stock exchange transactions and on transfers to offshore. In his closing speech Francisco Louçã made a direct appeal to voters of all parties, and especially to young people, and stressed that only a leftist government can protect employment and to defeat the bankruptcy .

“Who decides is the people”, and not the Ecofin or Barroso’s meetings, the coordinator said when presenting the electoral program priorities: job creation, tax reform, agri-alimentar sovereignty, fight against corruption, protection of public services and particularly the Health National System, and with a special emphasis on the defense of the public bank.

F. Louçã noted that Ireland, which signed the agreement with IMF and EU, is already renegotiating interest rates. And that Greece, a year after signing a similar agreement, has an interest rate of 24%, the debt is greater and the deficit is 10%.

“Portugal needs a new 25th April”, he concluded giving explaining the necessity of people standing up and the idea of ​​a "wide left" that is ready to fight.

Message from Pierre Laurent, President du PGE, to the Convention du Bloco,

Dear friends, dear comrades,

Unfortunately, owing to national duties, I can't be with you for this important convention of the Left Block. However, I particularly want to give you the European Left Party's wishes for success and encouragement.

In the disastrous political, economic and social crisis Portugal is going through, at this crucial moment when Jose Socrates and the “troïka” have just signed a new “emergency plan”– without revealing all its contents and before the elections -  such as those imposed on Greece and Ireland, it is indeed appropriate to take all the initiatives needed to open a progressive perspective for and with the Portuguese people, as you are doing.

 

An unprecedented struggle is now beginning in Portugal to get out of the baleful spiral into which the ECB, the IMF and the European Commission are involving Europe so as to make the people, instead of banks and financial markets, pay for the crisis.

I want to hail the effort you have started, to achieve a convergence with forces that share the aspiration of a deep change in Portugal. In different forms and to varying degrees of cooperation, this is an approach that is growing in European countries. I think it's the right way to go, all together, towards national alternatives and for change in Europe.

I want to tell you that you are not alone. Everywhere in Europe, voices are rising and unprecedented and powerful mobilisations are being organised against these very dangerous political choices that can only bring about economic recession and social regression. You can depend on the ELP to pass on the message of your struggles and to work for their convergence at the European level.

With the same idea, and considering the strong social mobilisation in Portugal against precarity, I think that together we must carry forward, at the European level, the fight against the “Pact for the euro” that contains drastic measures like the reduction of wages, the general implementation of flexi-security, cuts in social expenditure, dismantling public and social services — which will be imposed on those states subjected to a control of their national budgets by the European Union.

Here again, you can depend on the ELP, which has already called for such mobilisation and for a counter offensive by the peoples. During the ELP meeting in Paris on 3 May last, the fight against the “Pact for the euro”+ had found some response and 1000 people gathered to listen to our analysis and our proposals.

The ELP already drafted an alternative to the current way of building Europe, and some proposals to create the conditions of a renewal of the social development in Europe by liberating women, men, states and the European Union from the stranglehold of financial markets. I believe that it's around those social choices that we will gather the Left together, in Europe and in our respective countries.

Dear friends, dear comrades, I wish you every success for this convention of the Block and for the coming social and political elections.

Pierre Laurent