The PCP’s General Secretary, Paulo Raimundo, in his speech at the end of the Festa do Avante, addressed an exuberant audience and drew attention to the policies of the executive led by António Costa, who, he argues, “essentially about serving the interests and objectives of the economic groups, an option towards which the action of the PS government, its absolute majority and the intervention of PSD, CDS, Chega and IL converge”.
“We are now being told that the economy is doing well,” emphasizes Paulo Raimundo, wondering if “the 2 million people at risk of poverty, 345,000 of them children, are doing well.”
“Is it okay that about 3 million workers, who earn up to a thousand euros in gross wages per month,” asked the communist leader, before accusing the government and all parties of the right to be “submissive” to the “euro, to the the impositions of the European Union and the chopping of “certain bills”, which, he says, do not serve the interests of the people “and exacerbate the country’s problems”.
Paulo Raimundo’s speech also lifted the veil on some proposals that the communists will present during the next legislature, and which are even under discussion, such as “IRS exemption for employees and pensioners”. In addition, still on the tax front, Raimundo urged “increasing the number of levels and updating the value of the specific deduction” in the IRS and “for the reduction of VAT on electricity, gas and telecommunications.”
Interrupted several times by the public, who continued to shout “this is how you can see the strength of the CP”, the communist leader also left some warnings. “If the vast majority who are the target of injustice and inequality, if the workers and the people become aware of the strength they have, the strength of their struggle, the strength of their unity, then this will really change,” concluded he.
Paulo Raimundo’s message for the party and for the country followed the lines already followed by other political forces and defined as targets the elections in Madeira this year and the European elections next year. “We want more power for the PCP and the CDU with our allies from the Ecologist Party ‘Os Verdes’ and the Associação Intervenção Democrática, whom we welcome from here, because more votes and more CDU mandates are a requirement for the rights and living conditions of the workers and the population are moving forward, and from now on in Madeira, where elections for the Regional Legislative Assembly will take place in three weeks.” With regard to Europe, Raimundo promised that “the PCP deputies are the essential voice guaranteeing the defense of the rights and interests of the workers, the people and the country, to courageously support submission to the Euro and the imposed demands of the European Union to face”.
Source: DN
