“What I said and reiterate is that there are minimum conditions to consider any convergence of candidacies, or a withdrawal, if you will. First of all, it should be a project for a left-wing candidate, and one who is not ashamed to say so, who does not believe that the left is a drawer,” criticized Jorge Pinto, a presidential candidate for the January 18 elections.
In an interview, the candidate supported by Livre stressed that he cannot “imagine” withdrawing at this moment but admits this scenario under certain conditions: that the candidate in question is from the left and aligned with the “republican pact” he proposed in areas such as health or housing.
The deputy challenges his competitors on the left to commit to withdrawing in his favor if his candidacy is the most well-positioned for a possible second round, considering that “this is the minimum.”
“If my [candidacy] starts to grow, if mine begins to have a winning momentum, then I also want them to be asked if they are willing to withdraw in my favor,” he challenges.
In addition to Catarina Martins, supported by BE, and António Filipe, by PCP, Jorge Pinto does not exclude António José Seguro, former PS leader, from the potential left-wing candidates for whom he might withdraw, but he invites him to position himself publicly on the left.
“I believe António José Seguro is left-wing: he is a former secretary-general of the largest left-wing party in our democracy. If he is ashamed to be left-wing, or thinks that being left-wing is to be put in a drawer, that’s his problem,” he criticizes.
Jorge Pinto, who was a PS member before founding Livre and left the party in 2013 when Seguro was the socialist leader, refers to the resignation letter he sent to Largo do Rato to justify that his stance has not changed.
In that letter, Jorge Pinto warned of a “disconnect between parties and society, which will be extremely dangerous for the parties and for society itself” and wrote that he would continue to be a socialist but would be “more useful” outside the PS.
“I haven’t changed, I am exactly in the same place. If PS or some people like António José Seguro now think it’s better to talk to ‘passistas’, think it’s better to now speak to the right, or they themselves do not consider themselves as left, the problem is on their side,” he states, defining himself as “the democratic left candidate not supported by Pedro Passos Coelho.”
For Jorge Pinto, Seguro “needs to be much clearer about what he wants to do and what he wants to be in this campaign.”
The Livre deputy doubts that any other candidate, besides these three, is available to assume the left but took the opportunity to criticize Henrique Gouveia e Melo, “who one day is right-wing and another left-wing,” stating that he could “enter the game” if he accepted these conditions.
Jorge Pinto rejected the notion that Livre is going against its ideal of advocating left-wing consensus by supporting his candidacy and stressed that he is “not a son of a lesser God” to be unable to run for President of the Republic.
Criticizing the other left-wing candidates for not waiting for an aggregating name or accepting to participate in “open primaries to all citizens,” the Livre leader said he believes he is “the candidate who is most willing to win this election.”
