In a press conference at the PCP national headquarters, presenting the meeting of the party’s Central Committee that took place this weekend, Paulo Raimundo emphasized that we are witnessing the “worsening contrast between the difficulties of the majority of the population and the colossal profits of the main economic groups.”
“This is the reality of the country, no matter how great the propaganda of a PSD/CDS Government that, beyond fabricated disagreements, counts on the support and convergence of Chega and Liberal Initiative (IL) in its fundamental options, and with a PS that insists on and feeds expectations around the State Budget,” he criticized.
The PCP leader reiterated that it is already known that the next State Budget, “just like the one currently in force, will obey the government’s program and options,” will be “subordinated to the interests of the European Union (EU)” and will be “an instrument at the service of the interests of economic groups.”
Paulo Raimundo gave the example of what is happening in health, stressing that the Government decided to “deliver six million euros by the end of the year to a private group, under the pretext that the public-private partnership of Cascais Hospital will guarantee family doctors to 75,000 users.”
“Let’s do the math to understand, with six million euros in four months, how many family doctors could be hired for the NHS,” he said, emphasizing that this was a “political decision” by the Government.
“This is the path that is underway at this stage by the hands of PSD/CDS, with the support of Chega and IL, and it is about this that, first and foremost, the PS must assume responsibilities, with the certainty that this course does not serve the workers, the populations, the youth, and the country,” he said.
When asked if the accusations about budget negotiations between the Government and the PS this Sunday are part of these “fabricated disagreements” he alluded to, Paulo Raimundo considered that the exchange of statements “is laughable.”
“In this painful moment for the country, let there be something for us to laugh about. There are the letters and the exchange of letters for us to laugh at,” he said, suggesting that when he speaks of “fabricated disagreements,” he is, for example, alluding to the PS’s demands to remove the PSD’s proposal on Youth IRS from the State Budget.
Paulo Raimundo compared the Youth IRS proposal to the controversy surrounding the increase in IUC last year, emphasizing that it was already known that it would not be implemented and that its announcement served as a “true hare” to avoid talking about the “about eight billion euros from the National Health Service (NHS) transferred to the private disease business.”
“That was a banana peel because, while we were discussing the IUC, in practice what was passing was the transfer of public resources to economic groups. Now we may be facing the same thing,” he said, adding that it wasn’t the PCP that defined the PS’s red lines, which he considered to be “minimum services.”
“We’ll be here to see if the so-called PSD/CDS Youth IRS won’t fall like the IUC increase proposed by the PS fell,” he said.
The PCP’s general secretary also lamented that, in recent times, there has been talk “about the form, as if the Budget were a chair, which has to be shorter or less short.”
“It’s not. What we have to talk about is the content, and we’ll be here to talk about the Budget’s content and to see what content – not just proposals – will be subscribed to or supported by others, directly or indirectly,” he stated.
Paulo Raimundo was also asked if, in the hypothetical scenario of calling elections after the rejection of the State Budget, the PCP would face them with “hesitation.”
“Hesitation? We are always moving forward. Not hesitation. It’s with our chest out, and we’ll face them,” he responded.
