“There is no left in the second round if there is no candidate capable of saying that what drives them is the dignity of those who work and have worked their whole lives and who believes it is essential for the state to respond to the population with capable public services. I will fight to be in the second round because I will be that voice,” she stated.
The presidential candidate supported by BE was responding to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to a Family Health Unit in Faro when asked about the possibility of the left risking having no candidate in a second round in the presidential elections on January 18.
During the televised debate on Monday between the candidate supported by Livre, Jorge Pinto, and the former PS leader, the latter argued that a presence in the second round could only occur if votes converge on his candidacy.
Asked to react to this appeal for a useful vote made by the candidate supported by PS, Catarina Martins said she even received encouragement from PS members to run, because “they needed someone to vote for” to address the country’s crises.
“António José Seguro was involved in the past ‘troika’ and continues to be today because he continues to say that this is what he believes in, alongside those who thought that the crises in our country were overcome by taking more income from those who live from their work and further weakening public services,” she noted.
The presidential candidate and former coordinator of the Left Bloc stated her position as opposed to this, saying she stands “with the people who fight to overcome the country’s crises, for the dignity of work, and for the state’s response, which cannot continue to fail as it has been failing.”
The MEP also expressed her view that those with political responsibility who are unable to analyze the current moment and understand what needs to be done differently “have absolute blindness,” arguing that the country needs “new solutions.”
Besides Catarina Martins (supported by BE), other presidential candidates announcing their candidacies include André Ventura (supported by Chega), António Filipe (with PCP support), António José Seguro (supported by PS), João Cotrim Figueiredo (supported by Iniciativa Liberal), Jorge Pinto (supported by Livre), Henrique Gouveia e Melo, and Luís Marques Mendes (supported by PSD).
According to the candidacy portal of the Ministry of Internal Administration, 31 other citizens are collecting signatures for a presidential candidacy.
