Saramago was a proponent of anarcho-communism, and a member of the Communist Party of Portugal, however, in his: 'Lanzarote Notebook 1', José Saramago cites a comment by Gabriel García Márquez, during a meeting in Santiago de Compostela, called by Manuel Fraga: 'You the Stalinist don't believe in reality'. As such 'communist' he stood for the 1989 Lisbon local election in the list of the Coalition "For Lisbon" and was elected alderman and presiding officer of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon. Saramago was also a candidate of the Democratic Unity Coalition in all elections to the European Parliament from 1989 to 2009, though was often in positions thought to have no possibility of being elected. He was a critic of European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies.