The candidate for PAN leadership, Inês de Sousa Real, highlighted this Saturday, December 20th, in her global strategic motion, the creation of an advisory council and, despite the absence of the opposition list, she heard criticism for the lack of support for municipal candidacies.
During the period of presentation of the global strategy motions of the candidate lists for the direction of the Political Commission, the current spokesperson Inês de Sousa Real, who is running for list B, said that her political project brings a “globalizing perspective on the defense of the environment, which is necessarily related to the well-being of people”.
“While we have a Government that has set the pace when it comes to these issues, and that has retreated even in such fundamental matters as is the case, for example, of animal protection, it is essential that a party like the PAN has in its global strategy motion a vision that seeks not only to raise awareness and educate, but in some way to have a contagion effect”, he argued.
Inês de Sousa Real highlighted the creation of an “advisory council”, provided for in the proposed amendment to the statutes, so that internal discussion and consultation, as well as the transmission of knowledge from external experts, “are key to the political actions” of the PAN.
“I know that today are times of surrender, in some way, to populism, there is an easy giving in to populism, but we, who are people who defend the populism of good, the populism of causes, want to ensure that there is, in fact, also technical information that supports what our actions are”, he explained to the delegates.
Also regarding the advisory council, the PAN leader explained that this body will allow for more permanent consultation of mayors by the national leadership and will also count on the contribution of the party’s founders.
The motion, said Sousa Real, also focuses on the training of staff at local level, through a “training academy” for parido mayors, and on young people, with the establishment of district centers and PAN Youth councils.
The A list (motion “Transform to grow”, led by Carolina Pia) was called to intervene, but, as had already been announced, it was not present in protest as it considered that the “democratic guarantees” for carrying out the work were not assured.
Despite her absence, the list and Carolina Pia were mentioned in almost all interventions by the delegates, who criticized the opposition for choosing not to attend, accusing them of immaturity, lack of respect for the PAN and “deplorable” behavior.
Even without an opposition list in Congress, the management heard criticism from the voice of delegate José Carvalho, who confessed that he was “unsupported” by the national structure of the party in the last local elections and said he did not feel heard, regretting that internal discussion working groups had not been implemented so far.
The last head of the PAN list in the Europeans, Pedro Fidalgo Marques, considered that the “causes will not be forgiven” if they are “sacrificed in internal wars” and argued that the party “only grows if it becomes useful again” for those who live in difficulties, asking for “fewer trenches, more strategy, less past and more future”.
The work of the Congress began shortly before 11:00, with the unanimous approval of the Regulations and the election of the Congress board, chaired by João Fontes da Costa and with secretaries Alexandra Reis Moreira and Sandra Pimenta.
The opening of the work was followed by the intervention of João Fontes da Costa, as spokesperson for Coimbra, who considered the Congress a “turning point”.
Also speaking was the Mayor of Coimbra, Ana Abrunhosa, elected by the PS/Livre/PAN coalition, who stressed that governing the municipality well means “knowing how to articulate development with sustainability” and lamented the “serious environmental costs” of the ‘metrobus’ in the city, implemented by the executive that preceded it, but said that it will not stop the work.