Jorge Costa, member of the National Board and the Political Commission of BE, spoke to DN as an integral part of Motion A, which is represented by the coordination elements.
While lamenting the various opposing motions regarding coalitions across the territory, the former deputy assures that these “alliances allowed the parties to add to their respective electorates” and were “favorable, improving the representation they could obtain”, recalling the achievement of seats in the Municipal Assembly, despite only having reached one councilor, in the case of Carolina Serrão, in Lisbon.
“Results were low, this applies to Bloco and Livre. We were close to having councilors in Oeiras and Cascais. The convergences led to stronger candidacies, with more complete programs, but the difficulties were transversal to the left”, he assumes, recognizing that “in the situation that was not positive for the left, the Bloc had the worst result, a bad result.” For this reason, he guarantees that in tonight’s Political Commission, where justifications for the municipal results will be presented, it is assumed that the election fell short of expectations.
In 2021, the Bloc had achieved 159 representations in parishes, now it stands at 31. It went from four councilors to one, in Lisbon, and also suffered an abrupt drop in municipal deputies, from 94 to 17, including in this number coalitions with Livre. Six municipal deputies on their own lists were elected in Coimbra, Moita, Porto, Torres Novas, Horta and Vila do Porto.
The former deputy also demystifies the idea that the party ran, for the most part, as a coalition, stressing that “the Bloc had more than 60 lists of its own.”
Catarina Martins was approved as a presidential candidate in September. The motions that will be presented at the November Convention want guarantees that the campaign will not be harmful to the party’s finances, as only with a 5% vote the action could be funded. “What matters to us in the campaign is your message, We have already seen electoral campaigns, including the last one by the current President of the Republic, which was carried out in a very restrained way. It will be in this profile, there is no longer a need for big billboards or huge rallies. Financing will not be a problem”comments Jorge Costa.