José Manuel Pureza is, as DN knows, an almost consensual choice in Motion A, which has the majority of elements from the National Table of the Left Bloc. As such, the former deputy, one of the founders of the party, will have enough support to move forward as the main subscriber of Motion A. Meetings between activists have taken place and the differences that existed have been blurred.
In the case of the Left Bloc, throughout the party, there are two parallel currents, which intersect, work in cooperation, but are put to the test when there is a new leadership in perspective. With the announced departure of Mariana Mortágua, who is not re-applying for coordination, Motion A, from the current National Board, will have to agree on a name. And this depends on understanding the two dominant views in the party: Anti-capitalist and Alternative Left.
For now, the visions are in dialogue and José Manuel Pureza, who, as DN knows, is a strong option to be the name proposed for the coordination, is part of anti-capitalism and is guided by the “meaning he gives to the first person plural”, by “we on the left that brings together a register of solidarity, which is not the we of bourgeois cosmopolitanism made up of an agenda of globalization of the standards of the dominant classes”, he identifies in a text written in 2024 in the Anticapitalist Network manifesto.
It contains names such as Francisco Louçã, Catarina Martins, Jorge Costa, José Gusmão or José Soeiro, another name that was also in the line of succession. Still, despite being one of the party’s ideologues, Pureza should be chosen, DN found.
The desire is also for consideration to be felt in the speech. The idea of radicalization that the Bloc has been associated with must be countered by a defender of very similar ideals in domestic and foreign policy, but who is guided by communication also focused on dialogue and bridges.
Pureza was deputy in three legislatureswas a former vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic, is a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and has worked to build consensus between the two groups. There was criticism, as our newspaper knows, from younger Alternative Left activists, who wanted a more innovative name. Andreia Galvão, who replaced Mortágua in Parliament, was one of the names put forward by this wing.
Pureza was alongside Louçã in Parliament for many years and is one of the defenders of the Left Bloc base. The succession will be felt more in the speech than in the ideas defended, as far as DN was able to find out.
It belongs to the National Board, not the Political Commission, an independence that is pleasing even due to the division of powers in the Bloc. Purity will be nominated, at home, in Coimbra, in Sunday’s plenary. It is known that this is not worth the nomination for coordination, but it leads it in a certain way. Motion A was the clear winner at the last Convention. In November, there are four opponents in the contest, there should be a greater division in the future National Table, but it is expected that the hard core of the party will remain.