follow here our live blog about the war in ukraine
The communist leader and former MEP João Ferreira defended this Thursday the existence of a “dictatorship of single thought” by the president of the European Commission and a “witch hunt” to limit the rights and freedoms of citizens.
At a time like the one we are experiencing, where from the European Union [UE] and the speech we heard a few days ago from the President of the European Commission [Ursula von der Leyen]seeks to affirm a discourse that is a kind of dictatorship of the unique thought […] a voice committed to rights, freedoms and guarantees is more necessary”, considered João Ferreira, in a presentation, in Lisbon, of a balance of the activity of the PCP MEPs.
João Ferreira —who in July 2021 was replaced in Strasbourg by João Pimenta Lopes— advocated that the EU impose an attempt to “criminalize those who think differently” and “spread the theories of the external enemy that lives among us and around us. of us”. level, you have to be on guard.
The general secretary of the PCP, Jerónimo de Sousa, has already used the expression on several occasions “Dictatorship of One Thought”but to refer to comments made publicly against the party’s stance on Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.
From the perspective of the member of the Political Commission of the communist leadership, Brussels is carrying out a “new witch hunt, where measures are announced that involve an escalation in the limitation of rights” of European citizens, alluding to the speech on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
MEP João Pimenta Lopes shares the opinion of his predecessor in these functions, but added that there are “distortions of the PCP’s positions” in relation to the war that are an “attempt to condition” the party’s intervention at a European level.
The increased pressure is acknowledged, but the communist MEP has rejected its success, a view that appears to be shared by the party’s other MEP, Sandra Pereira, who nods.
More than a decade later, João Ferreira left the European Parliament to pursue municipal ambitions, but from a distance he said he understood that “the passage of time often casts a different light on things” and demystifies the “countercurrent voice” of the PCP in Strasbourg .
Between 2019 (date of the last European elections) and this year, PCP MEPs intervened “more than 250” times in plenary, presented around 400 questions to the European Commission and the Council, as well as 2,050 explanations of vote and were responsible for “following up 43 reports”, four of them as rapporteurs, according to information provided by the party.
In the presentation of the balance, the MEP Sandra Pereira also reinforced the ‘flags’ of the PCP in Strasbourg, namely, equal pay among the Member States and the rejection of impositions on the productive apparatus of each country.
Source: Observadora
