The PCP secretary-general on Thursday opined that the government is not responding to young people’s problems in education, wages or housing, defending that “youth are not the future, but the present”.
“The problems [da juventude] there are many, the government is not responding. We can talk about different things, namely employment, insecurity, low wages, but also student housing.”Paulo Raimundo told journalists after a meeting with the National Youth Council (CNJ) in Lisbon.
The communist leader listed several problems that young people face today, starting by highlighting issues related to education, be it the lack of teachers, the “weight of tuition fees” for those who want to access higher education, or the lack of student housing.
“There are also new issues that are more central now than they were a while ago, which are all mental health issues, which mainly affect young people at different times, not just younger people.”, he said.
Regarding employment, Paulo Raimundo also stressed that, despite the fact that insecurity and low wages are transversal to society as a whole, they have a particular impact on young people and women.
“The problems are many, we believe that there is a lack of an answer to the problems of youth. (…) Young people are not the future, they are the present, they are the ones who build the country every day”he stressed.
Despite these problems, the PCP secretary-general felt it was fundamental that there is currently a “great determination of the youth”, who want to “take charge of their own lives”.
Raimundo also welcomed the fact that the CNJ “reflected on the situation of young people” and “presented concrete proposals to solve the problems”.
The PCP leader stated that his party is “very much in tune” with some of the CNJ’s proposals, particularly with regard to increasing the social housing stock, but also with regard to issues such as “the general wage increase” or the “abolition of the onerous norms of labor law”.
In turn, CNJ President Rui Oliveira thanked the PCP for offering to go to the organization’s headquarters, emphasizing that it is the first party to do so, along with the President of the Republic.
Rui Oliveira said that at the meeting the CNJ communicated to the PCP what it considers to be “the most important problems of youth”, focusing on employment problems, namely the “lack of salary conditions”, forcing some young people to leave the country .
Like the PCP, Rui Oliveira also spoke about education issues – considering that in secondary education there are “educational methods that are very backward and backward” – and housing, complaining about the “lack of social housing”.
The president of the CNJ also stressed that during the meeting he tried to share with the PCP some of the solutions “that need to be implemented and thought about” so that there is “a better civil society, with participatory youth committed to the playing an important role in Portugal”. .
“Sometimes we make the mistake that young people are a future for the country, young people are already present today and sometimes we forget: we forget that they already have a fundamental role. (…) Fortunately, we had a party that wanted to come here , meet and be there with the CNJ, and learn about the difficulties of young people”he stressed.
Source: DN
