Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made an abrupt political shift, urging his socialist movement to reach out to the middle class and small business owners.
Chavez, who is undergoing cancer treatment, appeared to be taking a more moderate stance to try to expand his support ahead of the presidential election in late 2012.
In a telephone call broadcast on state television on Friday he said his party should seek to recapture middle class support.
Such support has waned over the years amid the government's expropriations of businesses, farmland and residential buildings, as well as expanding price controls viewed by many as a threat to the economy.
"We can't give away the middle class to the bourgeoisie," Chavez said, referring to the opposition.
The president also said his government has no plans to expropriate small businesses, adding: "We have to open ourselves up to those sectors, the private productive sector."
Tense relations
Chavez has had tense relations with the country's business leaders during his more than 12 years in office.
He has accused business leaders of defending capitalism, identifying them as obstacles to his socialist movement.
Meanwhile, he has nationalised or expropriated big businesses in industries ranging from telecommunications to construction.
"We have to reflect ... and introduce changes in our stances and in our actions," Chavez said, urging supporters to eradicate what he called political evils, "for example, sectarianism and dogmatism".
The president, whose signature red shirts have long been a symbol of his socialist movement, also suggested his allies ought to be more moderate in their wardrobes.
"Why do we have to go around all the time wearing a red shirt?" he asked.
Chavez, who in the past has scolded some aides for not wearing the red often associated with leftist movements, chose a yellow shirt when he addressed supporters at his 57th birthday party on Thursday.
Offering a similar message to his broadcast on state television, he said: "We have to keep advancing toward other sectors, of the middle class. The undecided, let them come with us."
Cancer treatment
A poll released last week said Chavez's public approval rating remains at 50 per cent and has not significantly varied since his cancer diagnosis.
Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumour.
He has not said what type of cancer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.
He underwent his first phase of chemotherapy in Cuba last week and said the treatment aims to ensure that no malignant cells reappear.
Chavez is pivoting to try to shore up support, Angel Alvarez, director of the Institute of Political Studies at the Central University of Venezuela, said.
"In this electoral context, the government needs to become more moderate because all the polls show the government no longer has the middle class," Alvarez told the AP news agency in a phone interview.
Chavez's support declined as the economy contracted during the past two years and has remained significantly lower than the 63 per cent of the votes he got in his re-election in 2006.
The economy has begun growing again, expanding at an annual rate of 4.5 per cent in the first quarter.
Alvarez said he doubted Chavez's moderation will last because it goes against his "most important political asset, which is his fiery speech".
"That's his drama as a candidate," Alvarez said. "It's like an internal struggle between becoming more moderate and more radical."
'Examine ourselves'
Chavez said his movement should "examine ourselves, starting with the leadership ... I myself, and the leadership of the party".
He denied that being more open toward small businesses would represent giving in to the wealthy elite, citing the example of Cuba and the economic changes begun by President Raul Castro's government.
"If Cuba after 60 years of revolution is making those revisions ... I doubt it's betraying socialism," he said.
He urged his allies to read the Cuban state newspaper Granma every day to see how Fidel Castro and other leaders are engaged in self-criticism. "Fidel isn't there frozen, no," Chavez said.
His call for change extended to one of his main political slogans.
It used to be "Socialist fatherland or death," and was repeated by soldiers in the military under Chavez.
But on Thursday night, he proposed to do away with "death" and instead say: "Socialist fatherland and victory".
On Friday, he made another revision and suggested: "Independence and socialist fatherland".
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