The Socialist Party (PS) Congress that took place last weekend was the first in ten years that was held with the opposition party. The congresses of the last decade took place when the PS was in power and the general secretary was prime minister (2016, 2018 and 2021) and, in the case of the January 2024 congress, the Government was resigning and there was already a new general secretary (SG) elected, but we were two months away from legislative elections.
The context of the Viseu Congress was very different, with the party in opposition after a particularly weak electoral result and no elections in sight, but, perhaps for that very reason, it was a meeting in which there was effectively political debate, open and with interventions with political density. In fact, the fact that the SG is elected in direct elections frees up the delegates and others present to focus on the frank confrontation of ideas.
This debate centered, as expected, around the stance that should be adopted in the opposition. The PS has sought to build bridges with the Government, presenting alternative proposals, in a clear effort to bring people together (in the Nationality Law and the Immigration Law, for example), but in all cases the Government has preferred to make agreements with the extreme right. Still, as proof of responsibility, the PS made the Budget viable.
But a Democratic Socialist Party with a social-democratic matrix cannot, under any circumstances, vote in favor of a list of STF ministers that results from an AD/Chega agreement that puts the 1976 Constitution at risk, nor enable a bill that sets back workers’ rights. These are insurmountable limits for the PS and should also be for the Social Democratic Party, as the founding party of Democracy.
Today, with the political center as biased to the right as it is in Portugal, even the most moderate social democrats are called radicals, in a clear way of trying to condition their political actions.
The center-left should not allow itself to be limited by this, especially because the majority of Portuguese people, more than two thirds, voted for parties and candidates that defend the Constitution, that follow the democratic regime and that reject the populist extreme right.
Constituting yourself as a credible alternative to the Government requires making a firm, demanding and purposeful opposition, which criticizes, but also presents constructive proposals, as, in fact, the PS has done. And actively seek solutions to solve people’s problems, in housing (where the Government dares to sell public assets with housing capacity, which it should use to promote the right to housing), in Health (the SUS has never been so chaotic), in income, in guaranteeing equal opportunities, in promoting the climate transition, in the qualification of Public Administration, in supporting the economy. All areas in which the Government has completely failed.
Given the Government’s options, the PS is, in fact, the only party that constitutes an alternative to the bloc formed today by the right and the extreme right.
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