“Who can the centrist governments, who have shaped policy until today, really blame if not themselves, who have opened the doors to the far-right?” questioned Mariana Mortágua at the first BE rally, marking the official campaign’s start at the “Incrível Almadense” in Almada, Setúbal.
The rally, titled “The European Left with BE,” featured speeches from Li Andersson (Left Alliance/Finland), Irene Montero (Podemos), and Manon Aubry (La France Insoumise), and gathered influential party members, including former national coordinator Catarina Martins and the three founders who will lead the lists in these legislative elections: Francisco Louçã (Braga), Fernando Rosas (Leiria), and Luís Fazenda (Aveiro).
In a speech lasting about 20 minutes, Mortágua targeted both the European and national “centrão,” blaming the PS and PSD for privatizing public services, “breaking labor laws,” and allowing “finance to run wild.”
“These governments bought into the racist and xenophobic agenda, compromised human rights principles, and permitted the genocide of the people of Gaza. They allowed the destruction of humanity’s border and international law. Who can these governments, these parties, and political leaders complain about?” she asked.
Mortágua criticized the PS and PSD for doing all this over the years and still having “the audacity to say, ‘vote for us because otherwise, the far-right will come.'”
The BE leader argued that to combat the far-right, it is necessary to tackle the oligarchs, emphasizing the importance of taxing great fortunes and addressing inequalities.
“On May 18th, your vote is worth as much as an oligarch’s vote. On May 18th, your vote is worth as much as a billionaire’s vote. The good news is that in Portugal, there are 50 billionaires. And we are millions,” she concluded, to the sound of “Mudar de Vida” by the musical group Humanos, the campaign’s slogan.
The BE coordinator asserted that “the response to the far-right does not lie in repeating their strategies, tactics, or neo-fascist slogans, or in conceding to the far-right’s principles, whether on immigration or any other issue,” but rather in the welfare state.
“No country becomes great by stepping on the weakest. And whenever they tell you that immigrants are to blame, that women’s rights are to blame, that the state is to blame, or that taxes are to blame, they are also looking to put their foot on your neck because they only care about one thing, which is to protect the oligarchy, the richest,” she warned.
With a focus on the “oligarchy in power,” the BE coordinator criticized those who want to “gobble up what’s left of the National Health Service” and referred to that as a “chainsaw.”
During a critical moment for Europe, BE today brought together leaders of ELA – the European Left Alliance for Peoples and the Planet, a new platform for cooperation among leftist parties, which will hold its founding congress in Porto in June.
Manon Aubry, MEP from La France Insoumise and co-chair of the Left group, specialized in tax justice, criticized European governments for claiming not to have money for hospitals or schools “but suddenly having money for war.”
If European leaders “are looking for money,” Manon Aubry pointed out the solution, challenging her panel mates to say it in different languages: “Tax the rich, taxer les riches, Verotetaan rikkaat, Taxar os ricos.”
“I think it’s an international language that we all understand, no matter where we come from,” she stated.
Irene Montero, Podemos MEP and former Minister of Equality of Spain, recalled the Palestinian cause, stating that “if Palestine dies, humanity dies,” and Li Anderson, MEP of the Left Alliance of Finland and former Minister of Education, warned about the threats the far-right poses to labor rights when these parties come to power.
