Garcia Pereira actively participated in the student protest movement against
Estado Novo during his youth. He joined the
Marxist–Leninist Students' Federation, the youth wing of the
MRPP, in 1972, the year he witnessed the assassination of José Ribeiro dos Santos by
PIDE. He was involved in the associative movement 'Dare to Fight, Dare to Win,' and faced suspension and disciplinary proceedings at the Faculty of Law of the
University of Lisbon in December 1973. A member of the
PCTP/MRPP since 1974, a political group with a significant presence in Lisbon's university milieu, Garcia Pereira rose to leadership within the
Central Committee of this organization in 1982. He ran as a candidate in
legislative elections, municipal elections in Lisbon, and for President of the Portuguese Republic in 2001 and 2006 After more than 30 years as a member of the
PCTP/MRPP, he was suspended from the permanent committee of the party's
Central Committee on 6 October 2015, along with four other members, for being considered the 'main responsible' for the defeat in the legislative elections. On 25 November 2015, Garcia Pereira resigned from the
PCTP/MRPP, citing 'constant personal attacks and defamatory accusations of all kinds, without any opportunity for debate,' published against him in the party's online newspaper. His wife, Sandra Pereira Vinagre, and daughter, Rita Garcia Pereira, publicly defended him, seeking to clarify the truth for the public. On 24 May 2017, Garcia Pereira ended his silence since 6 October 2015 by launching a website containing eight texts aimed at exposing the truth behind the falsehoods published in the
PCTP/MRPP newspaper over the previous 18 months. The introductory text explained his reasons for breaking his silence: the obligation to reveal the truth, respect for his party comrades and friends, and for the 60,000
PCTP/MRPP voters. He emphasized that he could no longer remain silent in the face of such lies. == Election results ==