“I represent, first and foremost, the Left that is not ashamed to say it is the Left, because saying Left means understanding that the respect and dignity of work are at the heart of democracy,” stated Catarina Martins to journalists in Braga, following a meeting with the Workers’ Committee of the local Bosch factory.
For Catarina Martins, former leader of the Left Bloc, “there is no democracy that does not respect those who work, those who build the country.”
“This is where it begins, and this is how I view the world, and it is here where I fight,” she added.
She also stated that her candidacy represents the “absolute necessity to build bridges, to know how to communicate with others, to listen to the country, to be with all people, and thus to create solutions.”
“I have done this all my life and that is what I also intend to bring to the Presidency of the Republic,” she affirmed.
When asked about the number of candidates already announced in the presidential race, Catarina Martins declined to comment but noted that some candidates are from such similar political fields that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish their proposals, or they “even say the same things.”
Regarding the upcoming debate phase, Catarina Martins expressed her hope that it will not be a “wild frenzy and shouting that interests no one, which only creates problems and brings no solution.”
“My great wish is that this is not politics talking about itself, but a moment to talk about the country, the country’s issues, and how a President of the Republic can help create solutions,” she pointed out.
She described Portugal as a country “of low wages and very high supermarket bills, of impossible rent prices and greatly feared that the hospital might not open and that there are no teachers at school.”
“We need to place these issues and their resolution at the center of the presidential campaign, looking into how a President of the Republic can help focus political discourse and political debate,” she concluded.
