In the largest rally of the CDU campaign to date, Paulo Raimundo focused his speech on combating “all forms that the right may take, from the most aggressive to those that appear more polished.”
The communist secretary-general accused “all the aggressive and polished types” of having supported pension and salary cuts during the ‘troika’ period, suggesting that the right aims to return to those days.
According to the PCP leader, the far-right acts as “the vanguard of the right,” serving as pacemakers in a marathon that seeks to impose values and concepts.
The fight, he emphasized, is conducted “face to face,” addressing “the real-life problems of each individual.”
“Here, we don’t even give a finger, let alone a hand, to the right. Here, we do not endorse budgets or government programs of the right. Here, we do not give leeway to the far-right, do not offer credibility, nor do we normalize the far-right,” he stated.
Paulo Raimundo also took the opportunity to indirectly criticize the PS, accusing it of gesturing with the left hand but ultimately “shaking hands with the right side.”
Following a rally where he received support from 165 former political prisoners, Raimundo referred to this backing and the party’s history in fighting the dictatorship to emphasize that the CDU is “the force of April,” with experience in combating the far-right and the right, “no matter where it comes from or how strong it is.”
“We’ve been at this for many years. We have faced the same enemy with different faces and disguises,” he highlighted, noting that these same forces try to get people to look sideways or downwards in search of the one responsible for their life difficulties, when in fact, “it is up there.”
