For Manuel Fernandes, who was speaking to Lusa in the week that marks the fourth year of the mandate of the President, João Lourenço, initially the head of state fell in love with many Angolans with his speech, fruit of the alternation in continuity, but his action "has been regressive."
"Throughout the first two years of his mandate there was an exercise, we can consider, a little more daring, where there were some advances, even from the point of view of the exercise of fundamental freedoms," said the president of the opposition Convergence for the Broad Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE).
But, according to the politician, as of 2020, the country "registered a regression," especially in the "exercise of fundamental freedoms and the degradation of the socioeconomic fabric," with "extreme poverty that devastates Angolans" throughout the country.
"We are seeing a regression, even from the point of view of the exercise of freedoms; the role of the public media, finally, in the demonstrations there are positions a little more brutal towards the citizen, the media is regressing its openness, unfortunately," he lamented.
Manuel Fernandes, 49, third president of CASA-CE, a coalition founded in 2012 by politician Abel Chivukuvuku, has led the coalition since last February, replacing Admiral André Mendes de Carvalho "Miau", removed at the request of the parties that support the coalition.
For the CASA-CE leader, the governance of João Lourenço, elected on August 23, 2017 following general elections, has accentuated social degradation, especially in the last two years, with "extreme poverty that has extinguished the Angolan middle class."
"[Today] we have no middle class, today we only have three classes: the miserable, the poor, and the marimbondos [allusion to wasps], which are the rich. The middle class, which was said to exist, no longer exists," he said.
A crisis with "several origins", but that is fundamentally the result of "errors of governance, political readings of management very badly done," he sustained.
The leader of CASA-CE said he is "working for innovative ideas to get the country out of the current situation," promising to present soon the ideas and proposals of the electoral coalition that "should change the picture".
The fight against corruption, impunity and nepotism are some of the axes of the governance of the President, João Lourenço, also president of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA, in power since 1975).
Corruption, in Manuel Fernandes' opinion, "is an evil that must be fought continuously and, because it is a greater evil after the war," he stressed, the process must be faced with "more seriousness and not with the selectivity with which it denotes.
"Because today what we see is some selectivity in the fight against corruption, the kind that there are the vulnerable and there are the untouchables. It's not right," he noted.
The member of the National Assembly also considered that, in the economic chapter, Angola "is impoverished" because those in charge only look at the consequences and not the causes, "such as the lack of a solid national production.
Recalling that Angola has just joined the Free Trade Zone of SADC (Southern African Development Community), he questioned: "How is this going to happen if we don't have roads in conditions? Do we have national production to stop being an authentic consumer market to a producer market? This is what we must see and analyze," he pointed out.
The president of CASA-CE also expressed concern with what he considers a "territorial cohesion problem," defending "favorable and inclusive dialogue" to solve the country's problems, such as the situation in Cabinda province".
"Should we continue with the present state, of having a high number of Angolan Armed Forces personnel in Cabinda and then tell the world that there is peace? Why don't we promote a more inclusive and favorable dialogue and then come up with ideas to satisfy the parties?", the politician further questioned.
CASA-CE brings together six political parties, namely the Party of Free Alliance of the Angolan Majority (PALMA), National Party for the Salvation of Angola (PNSA), Angolan Pacific Party (PPA), Democratic Bloc (BD), Democratic Party for the Progress of the Angolan National Alliance (PDP-ANA) and the Party of Support for Democracy and Development of Angola - Patriotic Alliance (PADDA-AP).
The electoral coalition elected 16 deputies in the 2017 general elections. The next elections in Angola are scheduled for 2022.
