Paulo Baptista and Elza Cunha, elected by PAN – People Animals Nature in Faro, announced today that they presented their disaffiliation from the party on a collision course with Inês Sousa Real, who they accuse of having exchanged the PAN's causes «for crumbs and opaque agreements on both the left and the right».
«For power, the PAN “goes to bullfights” with everyone», they accuse.
According to Paulo Baptista and Elza Cunha, who have already «informed the bodies for which they were elected of their intention to become independent deputies», the reasons for this separation «are related to the countless situations that have occurred in the public and internal life of the party, which culminated in institutional disrespect for local elected officials, when the PAN Spokesperson traveled to Faro, as part of the electoral campaign, on the 26th of February».
«In fact, it was at five in the morning that information arrived that the party Spokesperson would be in Faro, on the same day. More than a sign of incompetence of the District Political Commission (CPD) of the PAN in the Algarve, this situation is a reflection of a way of relating with local elected officials in the region, in which they do not see eye to eye and which they condemn», they reveal.
«Local elected officials face with dismay the disorientation of a national leadership that has transformed the party into a political organization increasingly distant from its guiding principles, glued to the “centrão”», they add.
For the member of the Municipal Assembly of Faro and representative in the Intermunicipal Assembly of AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community, and for the candidate for the Municipal Council of Faro in the last local elections and an alternate member of the Municipal Assembly, the PAN today considers itself «as a center-left or center-progressive party, which has added nothing relevant and necessary to what are the most emerging struggles of our days: climate change, the protection of ecosystems, all types of animal exploitation and rescuing people from increasingly critical situations with the degradation of their living conditions, access to health, education and housing».
«In recent times, the PAN has relegated its existential causes to the plane of circumstantiality and common places. They lack the vision, courage and competence to point the finger at the main problems and present truly transformative solutions,” they accuse.
Local elected officials in the municipality of Faro they also expressed “vehement opposition to the resistance that this “new” PAN has shown in relation to elections and public scrutiny. It was like that at the end of the last two national governments and it was like that in Madeira. For the sake of any illusion of political stability or of being part of a government solution (even if it does not suggest improvements for the population), it is best to never go to elections. He highlights the risk of the extreme right's election to argue that the best way to guarantee democracy is to suspend it».
Internally, «even after bad results in the local elections and terrible results in the last legislative ones, he avoided holding a Congress, revealing a disregard for internal democratic values and for those who took positions different from his own by demanding more scrutiny, proposing different paths. The current Spokesperson discredited the project and is today its main toxic asset».
«The steering compressor arm arrived in the Algarve through direct support to a District Political Commission of Faro (CPD) illegitimately elected, using subterfuge and enlistment of family and friends to be able to take control of the local body, facts that culminated in a collective dismissal of the remaining district commissioners, who made a point of distancing themselves from a farce, in the conviction that internally the National Political Commission and the National Jurisdiction Council to do their part. They didn't do it and they won't", they maintain.
Paulo Baptista and Elza Cunha also say that, «in the PAN, the separation of the various powers is an illusion. The Constitutional Court has ruled on this situation more than once. He rejected the previous Statutes, is preparing to reject the current ones and more recently acknowledged the reason for the party's Spokesperson in Madeira, who was illegally removed before the regional legislative elections, in yet another of the already famous political purges perpetrated by the current leadership, which include numerous internal disciplinary processes. In the PAN, the “cork law” and internal purge are practiced».
They also complain about “zero support from party bodies and secretariats during this mandate. No member of the current District Political Commission was ever seen at a Municipal or Intermunicipal Assembly, however, this did not deter the current CPD from interfering, without any type of consultation with local elected officials, in municipal policies».
An example they give was the public position of the CPD «at the inauguration of the Animal Collection Center of Faro: they appeared in the photographs and proclaimed praise for something to which they contributed nothing. The official collection center for Faro is a concretization and achievement of the PAN's time in Faro, but certainly not from these people. Furthermore, associations and caregivers of stray and abandoned animals know that it is not yet the perfect space for Faro needs to welcome animals in need”.
Another position that offended the two elected by Faro was «support for the construction of the desalination plant, after an alleged meeting with the Algarve Intermunicipal Community», which «goes against what the environmental associations defend and naturally against what the PAN has been publicly defending, including the PAN representative in AMAL Intermunicipal Assembly».
«If we look at PAN Algarve's local social networks, we see that there is an assumed boycott of political activity carried out by local elected officials. It stopped being a space for disseminating political activities and reflections on aspects of the region and became a space for propaganda and worship of the image of its Spokesperson and members of the CPD», they conclude.
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