"In light of this, and now that I am completing the term conferred on me at the last Convention, I inform you that I have decided not to run for a new term as coordinator of the Left Bloc," reads a letter sent to members, which Lusa has seen.

In this letter, Mariana Mortágua recalls that when she was elected coordinator, just two and a half years ago, "she was aware of the difficult political conditions facing the left and the party."

"After the collapse of the PS's absolute majority and the strengthening of the right and far-right, it was necessary to find other paths. I believe that this objective was not achieved. Not only because the Bloc's electoral space continued to shrink, but also because the renewal we undertook at the time proved insufficient to relaunch our social intervention," Mortágua argues.

She adds that, in the final years of his term, "the rush of successive election campaigns took away space and time for internal reflection" within the party "and hindered an effective transformation of the Bloco's functioning."

"The leadership I led was unable to reverse the excessive centralization of the Bloco's structure and generate new political and electoral momentum. We are well aware of the committed hate campaigns of our opponents, but the truth is that we were unable to neutralize them," the text states.

Mariana Mortágua says she made this decision "with the peace of mind" granted by the "constant support" of her "comrades throughout this entire time." "I do this because I believe that the Left Bloc will benefit from having, in its leadership and in parliament, people better equipped to give the party a voice than I currently have," says Mortágua, who, in addition to being coordinator, is the party's only elected representative in the National Assembly.

Mariana Mortágua, 39, an economist, was elected national coordinator of the Left Bloc in May 2023, at the party's last national convention, succeeding Catarina Martins, the current presidential candidate supported by her party.

In the legislative elections held in May of this year, the Left Bloc had its worst result ever in its history in elections of this type, dropping from five parliamentarians to just one. In this month's municipal elections, it dropped from five councillors and 94 municipal deputies to one councillor in Lisbon, elected as part of the coalition that brought together the Bloco de Esquerda, the Partido Socialista (PS), Livre (Lisbon), and PAN, with a total of 17 deputies in city councils and parishes.