“It’s time for new parties; the mobilisation of citizens”
With yesterday’s political earthquake reverberating through the country, a party that few will have heard of has declared it’s time for a whole new approach.
Volt Portugal stresses that “citizens’ expectations of honesty from those who hold political office, especially high-level positions such as Prime Minister, have been called into question”.
On one hand, António Costa’s resignation “shows us how Portuguese democracy is working, (…) that no one is above the law”, on the other it exposes suspicions of cronyism serious enough to bring down a government.
Duarte Costa, Volt’s co-president and European candidate, suggests “Portugal urgently needs to renew the democratic centre and break the cycle of bipartisanship with solid alternatives and without fuelling the rise of populism based on hatred and manipulation.”
Says a statement put out by the party today: “Volt believes that Portugal needs the new democratic and progressive parties to collaborate in order to be the political future of Portuguese democracy, standing up to extremism.
“Political innovation is needed to bring Portugal into line with Europe, through aggregating and plural political projects that reconcile proposals for a truly European, free and globally competitive market, with an efficient and regulatory State that guarantees social justice and an energy transition that leverages a productive, resilient economy within the limits of the planet.
“Volt presents itself in Portugal as a new European political platform, of pan-European origin, independent of national party logics and vices, and invites all Portuguese who want to contribute to the renewal of Portuguese politics to consider this side of democracy: the mobilisation of citizens to occupy positions of political representation”.
Staying on a European note, president of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen has said she is following Portugal’s political crisis, but from a distance.
“We are following the news in Portugal and it is now up to the national authorities to investigate,” she said in Brussels today when asked about António Costa’s resignation at the press conference to present reports on the enlargement of the European Union.
All in all, so much is changing as a result of five arrests and one resignation – and that’s even before the truth of this investigation has been established. ND
