The left block paraded in the downtown area, five days ahead of the general Portuguese general election on Oct 6th.

The left block, Bloco de Esquerda, is comprised of the People’s Democratic Union (UDP), Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR), and Politics XXI (PXXI). It holds about 10 percent of the parliamentary seats.

We also saw the hammer and sickle symbol of the Portuguese Communist Party always everywhere we go. According to the Wikipedia, their national popularity has declined steadily over time from the high of 20% in the late 70s to current 5.22 percent of the CDU, which is comprised of the PCP, PEV, and the ID.

If judging only from the signs on roadside, you would think PCP the largest party in Portugal. The PCP holds close to 10 percent of local governments. It appears they have wider support from the bottom.

In the morning after dropping William off at the CLIB, I ran into Yukika with her two kids walking up the hill. Yukika’s husband was from Brazil. She added me to the expat WhatsApp group.