The PCP Secretary General believed that the suspicions of a combination of PS and PSD in the 2017 Lisbon municipal elections discredited the political system, but stressed that whatever the conclusion, it does not affect the Portuguese.
“Regardless of the outcome of the case, whether a conclusion is reached or not, it will not affect people’s lives,” Communist general secretary Paulo Raimundo said in statements to Lusa news agency.
In Évora, where he took part in a session on the European Capital of Culture in 2027, the PCP leader asked for clarification of “what needs to be clarified” because the case “creates a situation where the political system itself is completely discredited brought”.
“Judicial investigations, internal investigations, everything there is to investigate that needs to be investigated,” he stressed, but defended that it is necessary to solve “the problems that the Portuguese face in their daily lives.”
“If we all focused on people’s real problems, this would certainly be better than it is,” he stressed.
This week, some PSD figures – such as former deputy Sérgio Azevedo, current parliamentarian Carlos Eduardo Reis or Estrela parish council president Luís Newton – saw their name implicated in a series of reports from TVI/CNN Portugal.
The reports show that, as part of Operation Tutti Frutti, wiretaps and communications were intercepted pointing to an alleged “secret pact” between PSD and PS for each party to retain the leadership of certain parish councils in Lisbon in the 2017 municipal elections .
In his speech at the public session on Évora, European Capital of Culture in 2027, the communist leader criticized the PS government for believing that the country has followed the “path of devaluation” of the cultural sector.
“More than 100 cultural structures that met the DGArtes criteria [Direção-Geral das Artes]”, which were positively assessed and, although eligible, were not supported due to lack of budget,” he gave as an example.
Raimundo stated that the budget for the culture sector is “low and falls short of the more than reasonable need and strategic commitment needed and urgent to move forward”.
“If there are structures without support, and there are, it is solely due to the choice of the government, to its submission to interests other than those of access, flourishing and cultural production,” he charged, emphasizing that ” it is not a problem of lack of money”.
Recalling the announcement of an increase of 79 million euros for the 2023/2026 cycle of the sustainable support for the arts program, the leader of the PCP said that although “seeing is believing”, this increase “does not solve the funding needs ” .
“The €79 million is just over half the amount the government decided to transfer to motorway concessions at the beginning of this year. There was €140 million that went out of our pockets directly into the treasury of Brisa and other brisa, but €79 million is the value the bank has buttoned up in profits over the past seven days,” he compared.
Paulo Raimundo reviewed some of the PCP’s proposals for the sector and concluded that the country could now be in a “very different and much better” situation if the measures presented by the party were adopted.
“But here, too, this was not the option of the government and the PS, nor the parties to their right. Once again, PS, PSD, Chega and IL came together and did not follow us: they are responsible for the difficult situation of many structures culture, he added.
Source: DN
