Abstract
This paper takes a qualitative, rhetorical and historical approach with a view to analyzing the Portuguese Communist Party’s (PCP) long-term, oppositional stance and tactics towards European integration (EI) by briefly covering early opposition, while focusing on 1990s onward stages. The economic crises (Euro Crisis 2008/2009 and Pandemic) Portugal faces, and the rigid, neo-liberal solutions imposed by the European Union, have led the PCP to feel its constant criticisms of increased federalism have been justified. At its XXI Congress in 2020, the PCP used the same rhetorical arguments as it had in the past, including that the only solution is to break with the right’s pro-EU policies.
Highlights
This paper takes a qualitative, rhetorical and historical approach with a view to analyzing the Portuguese Communist Party’s (PCP) long-term, oppositional stance and tactics towards European integration (EI) by briefly covering early opposition, while focusing on 1990s onward stages
At a time when Euroscepticism and Brexit are vibrant in the news, we will examine the PCP’s tactics in opposing EI including within two parliamentary forums, the Portuguese Assembly and the European Parliament
Luciana Castellina refers to the left mostly opposing European integration after World War II for three reasons hovering around United States (US) and capitalist control of Europe, which were among the PCP criticisms at the time while clandestine and continue to this day
Summary
Much has been written on the PCP’s history since 1921 from Carlos Cunha’s analyses in varied writings[3] to José Pacheco Pereira’s many works (1999)[4] and other scripts by scholars like João Madeira (2013). Its historical legacy positioned the PCP to return after the 1974 revolution as the strongest political party in the country at the time. Luciana Castellina refers to the left mostly opposing European integration after World War II for three reasons hovering around United States (US) and capitalist control of Europe, which were among the PCP criticisms at the time while clandestine and continue to this day. Richard Dunphy produces an excellent analysis in 1988 comparing and contrasting the varied stances toward EI by West European parties of the left (especially communist parties) He argues that by the mid-1980s there were four general leftist views on EI. Magalhães (2011, 81-104) find the PCP is consistently hard Eurosceptic with the Left Bloc (BE) being more soft Eurosceptic given that a good percentage of the party supports EI but wants it to focus more on social integration and democratization of its central organizations
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