João Lourenço was speaking this Tuesday as president of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), at the opening of the fourth ordinary session of the Central Committee.
"With the existing democratic opening, greater freedom of the press and expression, political parties, especially those running for elections, seek to pass themselves off as great defenders of the interests of Angolans", said João Lourenço.
According to the MPLA leader, "some of them say it just to try to win the sympathy of the people, but their practices demonstrate precisely the opposite".
"The truth tells us that the same people who never accepted the electoral results since the first general elections in Angola, also never voted in favor of the General State Budget for 31 consecutive years", he stressed, in an allusion to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party and main opponent of the MPLA, the party in power in Angola since 1975 and which had the worst result ever in the past elections (August 2022).
On the other hand, João Lourenço acknowledged that there are political parties in parliament, without mentioning which ones, "which have taken a serious, responsible and patriotic stance over the years".
The president of the MPLA underlined that general elections were held just over seven months ago, "with voters having given the absolute majority victory to the MPLA and its candidate at the polls".
"The elections were held in an atmosphere of celebration, democratic openness and transparency, as is tradition in Angola, although the bad losers, as they have been doing in all previous elections since 1992, once again contested, without foundation, the results of the elections , which in other words means not respecting the will of the sovereign people they claim to defend", he stressed.
According to João Lourenço, the MPLA has always fought for the de facto defense of the good of Angola and the Angolans, the great challenge being "that of executing the economic policies elaborated by the executive on the basis of the MPLA governance program endorsed at the polls, which been proving to be right and guarantee the sustained economic development of the country and the well-being of the Angolan people".
The "Impact of Public Policies on the Life of Youth" was discussed at the meeting, highlighting that the executive has been increasing the supply of jobs, housing, teaching establishments of all levels, hospital units of different categories, sports infrastructure, technical and professional training for young people with the free distribution of 'kits' and encouraging young people to also embark on entrepreneurship.
"The public tenders that have been held since 2019 for the admission of health and education professionals are aimed at Angolans in general, but end up benefiting our young people above all", he stressed.
