Portuguese Prime Minister and Socialist Party (PS) Secretary-General António Costa called for action from the Party of European Socialists (PES) against the Slovak party led by Robert Fico, adding that parties cannot remain in PES if they make deals with the far-right.
“As the leader of a political party, which is part of a European party,” the PES, “we need to be very clear that if this party is to remain in this family it doesn’t make deals with the far right, or it makes deals with the far right it leaves,” said Costa.
Speaking to journalists at the end of an informal European summit held in the Spanish city of Granada, the PS leader confirmed a letter sent on Thursday to the president of the PES, Stefan Löfven, a group in which the Portuguese Socialists are included.
“As you know, we have a very fundamental rule for the far right, a red line, and so we don’t have the hesitations that other parties have, whether to make agreements with (Portugal’s right-wing populist) Chega Party or not to make agreements with Chega,” Costa said on Sunday.
“It’s an anguish that we don’t have, and so we can’t be part of the same political family as other socialist parties that might have doubts or pretensions about getting along with political families that are absolutely incompatible with us,” he added.
(Ana Matos Neves | Lusa.pt, edited by Maria de Deus Rodrigues)
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