The leader of the Socialist Party emphasized the richness and diversity within the party, citing the variety of voices and opinions as a strength rather than a weakness, during a session introducing candidates for the Avançar Coimbra coalition. This coalition is led by former minister Ana Abrunhosa and includes the PS, Livre, PAN, and the movement Cidadãos por Coimbra.
Highlighting Ana Abrunhosa’s candidacy for Coimbra’s council, the PS secretary-general described the party as “a great common house of meeting.”
“The great wealth of the Socialist Party is this internal diversity, which welcomes and opens up to civic and political expressions represented in other movements and identities,” he noted.
He warned against the opposite of this diversity, which he described as authoritarianism and the manicheism that some try to bring into political life, cautioning against “authoritarian and monolithic” parties.
José Luís Carneiro praised Ana Abrunhosa as a representation of this worldview.
Ana Abrunhosa, the coalition’s top candidate for the municipal elections on October 12, stated that Coimbra cannot remain in the shadows of its past.
“I don’t resign, I don’t complain, I roll up my sleeves and work,” she declared.
Advocating for a coalition of wills and visions, she argued for a “global Coimbra, capable of competing with Europe’s best cities.”
She proposed transforming schools into cultural centers, reducing bureaucracy in the Coimbra council, creating an effective and potentially free public transportation system, providing affordable housing, increasing gardens and green spaces, and implementing local participatory budgets.
Ana Abrunhosa also expressed gratitude towards the former president of the Coimbra Council, Manuel Machado, who was present at the session. Machado previously lost his re-election bid for a third consecutive term against the coalition Juntos Somos Coimbra, led by José Manuel Silva.
“We recognize the past and all that it represents,” she stated.
Speaking at the event, PAN’s spokesperson Inês Sousa Real, Livre’s head candidate Clara Cruz Santos, and the coordinator of Cidadãos por Coimbra, João Gouveia Monteiro, expressed their views on the coalition. Monteiro described the coalition as a “broad platform”, acknowledging it as a challenging path “not meant for everyone.”
