New General States of the PS start today with “alternative government”

Othe new General State of the PS, entitled “We count all”, they start today in Lisbon, a platform launched by the socialist leader, José Luís Carneiro, to collect contributions from independents with the aim of “preparing an alternative government”.

In the leadership of the party since June 2025, José Luís Carneiro is now moving forward with the new General States of the PS, which today have their inaugural session, in the Greenhouse, in Lisbon, which marks the kick-off of a process of participation and auscultation that will continue in the coming months and will travel throughout the country.

Among the speakers, highlight names such as former European Commissioner António Vitorino, former Finance Minister Fernando Medina, former Executive Director of the SNS Fernando Araújo, former governors and current deputies Mariana Vieira da Silva and Frederico Francisco, the former vice president of CDS Filipe Lobo d’Ávila, the mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, the former State Secretary Patrícia Gaspar and economist Ricardo Paes Mamede.

In statements to Lusa, the national secretary for the organization of the PS, Luís Soares, said that the platform – which was inspired by the model created for the re-candidacy of José Luís Carneiro the secretary-general of the party – already has more than 600 subscribers, being more than 90% independent.

From today's programme, which will be closed by the Secretary-General of the PS, one of the main highlights is the holding, in the morning and simultaneously, of 20 participative tables, each with 20 people and a different topic for discussion.

"The idea is that citizens who participate in them discuss a practical case that will be made available in advance and that they can, based on this method of case study, propose and consensualise measures of political choice for the construction of the electoral programme", he explained.

In the afternoon there will be four panels on Equality and Welfare, Territories and Development, Economy and Transformation and Freedom and Security, where in addition to the speakers' speeches, there will be in each of these panels the presentation of the conclusions of the tables that were aggregated to it.

According to Luís Soares, through these new General State and the contributions of the independents, it will be possible to build an electoral program to be “an alternative to the current Government” of the PSD/CDS-PP, which accuses of “never being able to meet the needs of the Portuguese”.

The head of the PS said that the general states when they emerged in 1995 by the former Prime Minister António Guterres had the objective of ‘preparing a new majority’, while those launched by Carneiro wanted to ‘prepare an alternative of government’.

"It is an initiative that will help to affirm the PS as a new political alternative. And I really believe that, from this participation work, there will be many citizens who, not only on this path, but then will have a decisive role, as well as people who participated in the 1995 General States", he anticipated.

Luís Soares also said that fadista Gisela João was invited by the leader of the PS to be one of the ambassadors of these new General States.

“It is a personality of Portuguese public life linked to culture, music in particular, and also, with its availability, will help to build this idea of political program participated by several independent citizens,” he said.