Raimondo said the government has emphasized the removal of SNS in its 70th day in office.

The PCP secretary-general today criticised the government for failing to resist and even exacerbating the disbanding of the National Service (SNS) initiated by former PS executives within its first 70 days in office.

“These 70 days of this government have not only not gone against this path (disbanding the SNS), but have reinforced it,” the Communist leader said at the end of a lunch with supporters at the Pavilhão Multiusos de Fronteira in Portalegre.

Referring to the statement made by Prime Minister Luiz Montenegro after a visit to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital, Raimondo said the current head of government was right to complain about the “heavy legacy of the Socialist Party.”

“The Socialist Party’s absolute majority opens the door to disbanding social networks and expelling the National Health Service doctors, nurses and technicians who are sorely missed here,” he stressed.

However, the problem for the Communist leader is that the situation was not reversed, or even worsened, at the beginning of the Democratic Alliance government when it was necessary to “respect doctors, nurses, technicians, give them working conditions and value their careers.”

“You can visit the hospital as many times as you want, with whatever delegation you want, to meet the Prime Minister, the President of the Republic, the Minister of Health, the Secretary of State, to attend whatever inauguration you want, but the most urgent and direct way to solve this problem is to pay attention to the workers”, he insisted.

Considering that other measures are “just sand in the eye”, Paulo Raimundo believes that the appreciation of SNS workers is “completely in line with the choices made by the previous government and those emphasized by the current one”.

In his nearly 30-minute speech, the Communist Party leader also addressed the issue of closing hospital emergency rooms, arguing that it was necessary to “ensure that all pediatric and obstetric emergency rooms are open and serving those in need.”

In obstetric emergencies, PCP leaders stressed that its actions were important for pregnant women “not to be moving back and forth, on and off, and unsafely, across the country.”

Among other issues, he insisted on the right to retire without penalty for those who have paid contributions for 40 years, reform of all pensions and the distribution of 7.5% of the excess growth in wealth created by state workers.

At the end of his speech, Raimondo warned that in the PCP “they will not join those who want the war in Ukraine to continue until the last Ukrainian” and will not behave like “those hypocrites who talk about everything ordered by their boss, but, as ordered by the leader, they remain silent in the face of the genocide that is taking place against the Palestinian people”.

The PCP leader also spoke about the crisis in Venezuela following the July 28 presidential election, in which the opposition cast doubt on Nicolás Maduro’s victory.

“Here we cannot echo those who, regardless of the outcome of the Venezuelan elections, have already decided a month, two or three months ago who should be the winner”, he continued, concluding that “the people decide, even against their will. Those who do not want this”.

“That is how it is and it has to be acknowledged,” he added.