Voting is a weapon

Next Sunday, the Portuguese return to the polls and what is at stake is not a mere party choice, but the regime in which we want to live.

Portugal is not immune to the international crisis, war, humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, militaristic climbing in Europe. But our role cannot be that of submissive viewers or silent accomplices. Rejecting Bellicism is not accepting resignation. Rejecting xenophobia is not to ignore the real problems-yes, to refuse false and dangerous solutions served by the far right that feeds on disbelief.

Indeed, immigrants and gypsies are used by populist and radical parties such as scapegoats in a speech that serves as a smoke curtain to hide the true responsible for the attack on NHS, public school, labor rights and the basic principle of social justice.

It is up to the left, often lost in sterile identity struggles, rediscover its purpose and not leave the ground free for the demagogy of those who scream louder. Time is neither folklor niche niche calendars, but of recounting the struggle in the defense of the democratic regime and the values ​​that should guide it: dignity, freedom, social justice.

May 18 elections still have a particular contour: those who are government cannot be overthrown for a year due to the proximity of the presidential. A year when the reactionary horseback riding can assert itself and make way for a far-right government led by Pedro Passos Coelho, assisted by André Ventura.

On the horizon, there is still a smell to a flyer, with the shadow of an Admiral on the way to Belém, announcing a return to symbolic authoritarianism.

Portugal cannot allow this setback and our recent history teaches the price of passivity. Each vote of a Democrat who is not deposited at the polls is an opportunity offered to those who grow in apathy and misinformation. Therefore, between conformism and resistance, there is only one responsible path: that of conscious voting. A vote that defends social state and human rights. A vote that says no to xenophobia and the culture of fear.

Vote and A gun. May each voter know how to use it with lucidity, courage and memory. Because Sunday is another step. Other than behind.

President of the Calho-Rei Cooperative