On Thursday, Chega’s leader, André Ventura, criticized the candidate selections of the Left Bloc (BE) and the Liberal Initiative (IL) during a rally dinner in Guimarães, mocking their “bet on the youth.”
“We should send a message to two parties in these elections, parties that promised rejuvenation but have returned to the same old group. The Left Bloc brought in Louçã, and the Liberal Initiative brought in Rui Rocha, that great young and safe value,” Ventura stated.
The veteran Left Bloc founder stressed that André Ventura’s party has its own “polls” and chose Braga to express that they do not want him in Parliament, labeling it as “curious.”
Louçã believes it is necessary to reduce the number of deputies from the AD coalition (PSD/CDS-PP) in Braga, a district where the party has not elected representatives since 2019, a time when they secured two deputies from there: José Maria Barbosa Cardoso and Maria Alexandra Nogueira Vieira.
“And I will very much enjoy achieving it,” he stated.
When asked if he finds it unfair that the Left Bloc brought him “out of retirement,” considering the party proposes early retirement for shift workers, Louçã humorously replied that he is not retired, merely no longer elected.
“I am in the political struggle, I have always continued, I am tireless. And I think one of the great prides of my life was having brave women, like Catarina Martins and Mariana Mortágua, leading the BE,” he praised.
Over a decade later, Francisco Louçã (Braga), Fernando Rosas (Leiria), and Luís Fazenda (Aveiro) have returned to join the BE’s parliamentary lists.
The Left Bloc is thus focusing on three districts where they were first elected in the 2009 elections but have since lost.
Francisco Louçã, Luís Fazenda, Miguel Portas, and Fernando Rosas were the most visible faces of the Left Bloc’s formation, which largely arose from the union of three now-defunct political forces: the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR), the Popular Democratic Union (UDP), and Political XXI.
