PAN is experiencing one of the most difficult moments in its history. The seven resignations in a little over a week (more specifically in nine days) came to make public the internal differences within the party that was born to defend animals and left the PAN without political representation in the European Parliament and with only three deputies in the Assembly of the Republic .
PAN was a success story from the beginning. Since it was born in 2011, all indicators show a tendency to grow electorally. In the last legislative elections he was one of the winners with the election of four deputies and in the last European elections he managed to elect a MEP for the first time.
1st to slam the door
Less than a year after celebrating the rise of just one to four deputies, in the district of Lisbon he was ahead of the CDS, the PAN was involved in an unprecedented internal war that led to several exits from the party. Francisco Guerreiro, elected to the European Parliament just over a year ago, was the first to knock on the door. The following exits showed that there is within the PAN a group of opponents of the leadership of André Silva with accusations of authoritarianism and of being against the founding principles of the party.
After Francisco Guerreiro, who made public the decision to leave the party more than a week ago, Sandra Marques, municipal deputy in Cascais, João Freitas, Ana Mendonça and Isabel Braz, who made up the party’s leadership in the Madeira region, left, and Cristina Rodrigues, deputy in the Assembly of the Republic.
Cristina Rodrigues’ dismissal was one of the most complicated, since the party now has only three deputies in the Assembly of the Republic.
Cristina Rodrigues, elected by Setúbal in the last legislative elections, criticized the “way in which the PAN has been oriented” and accused the leadership of trying to silence its work. “I started to feel more and more my silenced voice and my conditioned work capacity”, he told the Lusa agency.
The now unenrolled deputy accused the leadership of André Silva of not having tolerance for the difference. “Any divergent opinion is labeled as unfair,” he said.
André Silva, at a press conference, responded immediately to the deputy’s decision.
The PAN spokesman accused Cristina Rodrigues of lack of commitment and of not fulfilling her duties as a deputy.
We made ‘several attempts’ to talk, says André Silva
«There were several times when he did not participate in meetings or was absent from them, showing a total lack of involvement in the internal political debate. For these reasons, the decision-making process often took place without the presence of the deputy, who always showed a lack of commitment and interest (…). Lack of interest and commitment that was all too evident in terms of the political work that he did not carry out in the committees he accompanied ”, he said.
The party spokesman accused dissidents of being “more concerned with themselves and their personal interests” than with the causes of the party.
At this press conference, which served to respond to criticism, André Silva accused the group of leaders who slammed the door with “using the PAN as a springboard to reach” the seats they occupy in the Assembly of the Republic and in the European Parliament. “It is curious that Cristina Rodrigues and the MEP who recently left the party have not abandoned their paid political positions, none have abdicated, continuing to pursue their own interests and personal agenda in this way,” he added.
To SOL, André Silva says that the internal crisis was not caused by ideological issues, but because they are personal. «Above all, personal issues. The people who left the party did so in awe of the internal debate. André Silva devalues the criticisms of dissidents and considers that there is no reason to anticipate the congress. «We have received numerous messages of support to reinforce confidence in the political project that is the PAN. Therefore, as we have already mentioned, we believe that this is not the time to move forward with the holding of a congress ”, he tells SOL.
André Silva reveals that «several attempts» of dialogue were made to try to stop internal differences, but this was not possible.
Cristina Rodrigues joins Joacine Katar Moreira
With her resignation from the party for whose lists she was elected, Cristina Rodrigues becomes the unenrolled deputy. A situation that is not unprecedented. In fact, almost all parties have had similar situations.
Luísa Mesquita, in 2007, was one of the first deputies to take office as a non-registered deputy. The communist deputy resisted resigning her post and the party withdrew her political confidence for “repeated and unacceptable violation of the statutes”.
At CDS, José Paulo Carvalho also decided to continue taking office when, in 2008, he broke with the party. Paulo Portas defended, at the time, that the rebel deputy should give the place the other. “It would be natural for him to return the mandate to the institution that elected him,” he said.
The most recent case was that of Joacine Katar Moreira. The deputy was elected by Livre, but there were many disagreements with the party leadership from the beginning. After much controversy, Livre decided to withdraw political trust from its only deputy and was left without representation in the Assembly of the Republic. Joacine katar Moreira confessed, a few months later, in an interview to SOL, that this was the best way. “As a non-registered deputy I have had the chance to work much more and in better conditions and with enormous oxygen, although with few resources. The party, for me, was a huge hardship. I was the one who wanted to move forward, and they were pulling me back ».
Interestingly, Livre counts among its founders Rui Tavares, who remained in the European Parliament when he broke with BE (following disagreements with Francisco Louçã) – for whose lists he competed for Strasbourg.
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