The general secretary of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, stated this Sunday, November 2, that Portugal is a country “that is being plundered” by a “gang” formed on the right, which is committed to delivering the “fatal blow called the labor package”.
“We are facing a country that is being plundered, with the gang of PSD, CDS-PP, Chega and IL, this authentic gang of theft of rights, the advance guard of right-wing politics that is very committed to delivering this fatal blow called the labor package”, said the communist leader.
At a rally in Aljustrel, district of Beja, where the CDU regained, 16 years later, the majority in the municipal council in the October 12 elections, the general secretary of the PCP strongly criticized the labor proposals envisaged by the Government within the scope of the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026), generally approved on Tuesday.
According to Paulo Raimundo, “what is at stake is a brutal acceleration of exploitation and the creation of an even more unjust society”.
“What the PSD, CDS, IL and Chega want are new generations on the ropes, precarious workers with precarious lives, with no time to live and no time for their children”, he stressed.
For the communist leader, “the country is not moving forward and life for the majority is difficult”, but even so, “a budget was approved that is completely wrapped up in propaganda, but which is a piece at the service of the politics of those who think they own it all”.
“It is a budget that fulfills the measures of Chega and IL, who, taking advantage of the PS’s abstention, had the luxury of being able to vote against a budget with which they not only agree, but are ‘buried up to their necks’ in the commitments they have with this policy”, he indicated.
In his intervention, Paulo Raimundo also stressed that the country’s problem “is not the lack of money”, but rather “where this money is used and where it is diverted”, criticizing that, within the scope of the OE2026, more or less 12 billion euros in various items are given “on the spot”, directly, more or less 12 billion euros in various items to large economic groups”.
Regarding the National Health Service (SNS), the secretary general of the PCP also considered it “urgent to put an end to the nonsense and the fallacy of money” spent in the sector.
“Everyone is crying because it is 17 billion euros and, in fact, it is a lot of money. But no one sheds a tear because half of that money is to be given to groups that make the disease a business”, he said.
In his intervention, the communist leader also strongly criticized Chega and the party’s “silence” regarding the recent searches carried out by the Judiciary Police at Novo Banco and the sale of this institution to BPCE.
“What is extraordinary and what is revealing is that Chega, always full of corruption in his mouth, does not give a single sign of life on this matter, on this deep wave of corruption. This is indeed a scam”, argued Paulo Raimundo.
For the secretary general of the PCP, “it even seems that [o Chega] she put on her burqa to keep silent.”