Carolina Pia, in a complaint sent to the National Political Commission (CPN) of the PAN, accuses the party’s leadership of failing to provide necessary support for the preparation of the candidacy for the Viseu constituency in the last legislative elections. She claims this omission, deemed deliberate, resulted in the failure to submit candidate lists in a district where she previously led the list.
The party member states that despite warnings about the lack of human resources and logistical support in PAN’s Viseu district, the leadership intervened only in the final week of the candidacy preparation process for the May legislative elections, at a point where it was no longer feasible to complete it on time.
Carolina Pia argues that this lack of support aimed to use the failure to submit the candidacy as a “scapegoat” for the legislative election results.
She adds that the campaign director and the party’s spokesperson, Inês Sousa Real, had access to the necessary documents to submit the candidacy but chose deliberately and consciously not to fill them out, so the candidacy would fail.
“After the legislative election results, Inês Sousa Real orchestrated making me the scapegoat for the election outcome, indicating that several people asked why the candidacy was not submitted and that this greatly affected the party, which is not true,” it reads.
The former head of PAN’s Viseu district further argues that if it were true that Viseu had truly damaged PAN’s national image, the party would have done everything to address this failure and submit a candidacy for Viseu’s municipal elections, which it did not do and will not do.
Carolina Pia also alleges that the Viseu district was excluded from negotiations for this year’s municipal elections due to political reasons, calling this decision discriminatory and “illegal in all aspects, from statutory to constitutional and international legislation.”
The same document references allegedly discriminatory behavior and a hostile environment created in internal meetings, including “verbal violence” in a meeting with PAN Youth.
She states that Sousa Real contacted CPN members in advance to influence the vote on initiating an inquiry against her concerning the absence of a legislative candidacy in Viseu, which she classifies as a “concerted and illegal action of political persecution.”
According to several CPN members who attended the July 14 meeting, Carolina Pia’s complaint was not discussed as the CPN chair, led by Alexandra Reis Moreira, considered it unfounded and defamatory towards the party leader.
In the same meeting, according to the agenda and CPN sources, a motion to proceed with disciplinary action against Carolina Pia for her complaint against the party leader was reviewed and approved. This adds to another ongoing disciplinary process regarding her failure to present a candidacy for the Viseu constituency in the 2025 legislative elections.
When contacted about this case, the PAN leadership stated that Carolina Pia’s allegations amount to “slanderous conduct” and are in “flagrant contradiction with documentary evidence known to CPN members who decided on the disciplinary process initiation.”
“This issue was discussed, and the CPN concluded it was no more than a slanderous accusation contrary to the facts in the member’s email, which since May 2025 had a disciplinary inquiry for failing to deliver Viseu’s candidacy to the court, thereby harming the party,” the statement adds.
Carolina Pia, who was PAN’s lead candidate for Viseu in the 2024 legislative elections, resigned from the party’s CPN in May, days after the elections on the 18th.
A cabeça de lista do PAN por Viseu nas eleições legislativas de 2024, Carolina Pia, demitiu-se da comissão política nacional do partido, em divergência com a direção, na quarta saída dos órgãos dirigentes desde as eleições de dia 18.
Lusa | 21:01 – 26/05/2025
