Free accuses Government of arrogance and does not give up “constructive opposition”

Isabel Mendes Lopes spoke to journalists in the margins of the political rentrée do Livre, entitled “Os Setembristas”, which takes place until Sunday, in the Customs of Porto, an edition focused on the training and preparation of paintings.

During the morning, the party organized round-table discussions on various topics, including “how to make constructive opposition and gain political influence without being in the executive”.

Asked about how to achieve this goal with the current PSD/CDS-PP Government, Isabel Mendes Lopes accused the executive of choosing “surgically with those who want to talk, often with those who later say they have no trust”, in a reference to the Enough.

“The government continues without realizing that it is in a minority and that it has to dialogue with all the parties of the Assembly of the Republic,” he said.

The parliamentary leader also said that next month Parliament will begin the discussion of the 2027 state budget proposal, “with a government that said a few weeks ago that there was no budgetary margin and that the parties could not make alternative proposals”.

“Suddenly puts a bonus on the table for pensioners, when they should work on structural measures to increase reforms, and a drop in the IRS and still tells us that there is even less budgetary margin,” he criticized, accusing the executive of limiting and “emptying” the work of the Assembly of the Republic on this issue – a criticism that the Free also made last year.

From the perspective of Isabel Mendes Lopes, “this shows the arrogance with which the government governs”.

“From the Free, we will never give up making constructive opposition because we believe that politics should be done in this way. Even if we disagree deeply, we must know how to sit at the table and discuss the ideas ", highlighted.

The spokesperson of the Free also insisted on the objective of the party to assume itself as a political force “ready to govern”, whether national or local.

“Free has always been very clear since the appearance of the party, we want to be a solution also in executive positions, we want to have the power to effectively change people’s lives,” he said.

The Livre meets in Porto after a congress that he elected as spokesperson Isabel Mendes Lopes and Jorge Pinto and at a time when the party tries to cement the growth of the last electoral acts, particularly at local level.

During the morning, in a panel dedicated to “communication strategies”, Isabel Mendes Lopes stressed that the current challenge of the party is “to make the Free grow to affirm itself as a governing alternative”, which goes through the communication of its proposals, both at national and also at local level.

Bernardo Vidal, member of the parish council of Arroios, in Lisbon, stressed that it is important for Livre to have its own and recognizable image: “There is still no “seeing even that it is Free”, as with the CFP, for example”.

For this mayor, the communication challenge is to show what influence Free has on the decisions of a left-wing municipal executive, led by the PS: “You can’t put a poppy in every bank on the street”.

The municipal representative of Livre na Amadora, Hugo Lourenço, warned that sometimes the essays, even in Lisbon, do not have the means to cover municipalities of the periphery – often known “for bad things” – and considered that “the parties have a new function”, reporting what happened at a municipal meeting, as an example.

Ana Gomes de Almeida, municipal deputy in Gondomar, defended the proximity with voters, with visits to associations, as a way of greater local implementation: “Presence is a form of communication, particularly in local politics”.