“We do not accept that the country moves backward and that, unfortunately, we are confronted with news of rising infant mortality,” stated Paulo Raimundo during a rally in Alpiarça, Santarém district.
The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) Secretary-General remarked that the rising infant mortality rate reveals a “regression in quality of life, children’s rights, and parents’ rights by years and years.”
The communist leader emphasized that health and the National Health Service are areas where “the country cannot afford to take steps backward.”
“We do not accept the country going backward. It is necessary to stop this and to move the country forward,” he declared, attributing to the CDU the strength that “feels and lives the difficulties as they are, because they are theirs too.”
Reports indicate that the infant mortality rate in Portugal increased by 20% in 2024, a year largely marked by the closure of several gynecology and obstetrics emergency services.
In the municipality that provided the CDU with the best result in the district during the 2024 legislative elections (approximately 16%), Paulo Raimundo challenged those who accuse the communists of wanting to “raise salaries by decree.”
“Each of them, sitting comfortably in their good life, perhaps with their excellent car and comfy chair, should rise and go to the gates of Carnes Nobre, Sumol + Compal, or Rodoviária do Tejo [companies operating in the district]. Ask at these companies what decree declares that the path is to exploit, concentrate wealth in the hands of a few, and squeeze the wages and lives of workers,” he questioned.
Paulo Raimundo had previously challenged retirees, following a statement that the only thing the government “produces well is propaganda,” yet again accusing the government led by Luís Montenegro of lying by saying that pensioners have free medication rights.
“Here is a challenge to all retirees who, despite being retired, do not have the right to free medications. Vote for CDU, which has two immediate effects: firstly, it supports our proposal for the gratuity of all medications for all retirees. Secondly, it challenges the lies, illusions, and propaganda,” he asserted.
