In the turbulent wake of current protests, PS Socialists have announced that they are preparing an alternative government.
The party’s new General Assembly kicks off on November 14; its objective being to hear people out.
According to reports, the Socialists who crashed from eight years in power (and in spite of an absolute majority government) seek to hear the opinions of ‘independent voices’.
The idea is to have an inaugural session at Estufa Fria in Lisbon that will mark the start of a participatory process that will continue over the coming months and across the whole country.
Entitled “We all count”, the launch of the Estados Gerais (States General) marks the realisation of an objective to create a major platform for the political participation of independent citizens, for listening to independent citizens, but above all for transforming these contributions into concrete measures that can help the PS to build its political programme, which we then, naturally, wish to put into practice,” Luís Soares, the party’s national secretary for organisation, told Lusa.
“It is an initiative which, I have no doubt, will help to establish the PS as a new political alternative. And I truly believe that, as a result of this participatory process, there will be many citizens who, not only along this path but also in the future, will play a decisive role, just as those who took part in the 1995 Estados Gerais did”, he predicted, referring to the first initiative of this kind, started by former prime minister António Guterres.
The message the PS wishes to convey to society, according to Soares, is that the party “is not afraid to listen to the people”.
“On the contrary, we truly believe that this process of listening is crucial to ensuring our decisions are the right ones. Whenever parties and politics open themselves up to citizen participation, they emerge stronger,” he stressed.
From today, the PS will be sending out invitations to a group of independent citizens with a “highly diverse profile” representing various generations and sectors of society, while leaving the door open to any citizen wishing to join.
Regarding the launch in November, Luís Soares explained that the day before (November 13), there will be a “warm-up session” on the challenges facing contemporary democracy, featuring three leading figures from the field of political science.
CHEGA’s “governo sombra” (shadow government) is equally made up of ‘diverse’ personalities, but since its inception very little has in fact been heard either from it, or about it.
Source material: LUSA/ Observador
Natasha Donn
Journalist for the Portugal Resident.