Luís Montenegro spoke at a campaign dinner supporting the PSD/CDS-PP candidate for Caldas da Rainha city council in the Leiria district, current deputy Hugo Oliveira.
In 2023, then Health Minister Manuel Pizarro (PS) announced that the new hospital in the West would be constructed at Quinta do Falcão in Bombarral, in the Leiria district, a process that has since been suspended by the current PSD/CDS-PP executive.
It was only 20 minutes into his speech that the PSD leader addressed the topic, after both the candidate and former mayor Fernando Costa had called for the future hospital to be located in this municipality.
“Regarding the hospital, I am not in the habit of using electoral moments to create exaggerated expectations about what I know can and should be the frameworks and foundations for the decisions we have to make. We suspended the process that was underway to deepen the evaluation on the construction of the hospital in the West and in a truthful relationship with the people. I will not say here what the decision will be,” he stated.
Montenegro assured that “the decision will be the one that results from a thorough evaluation process, supported with all consequences.”
“This guarantee, Caldas da Rainha and all the municipalities of the West have from the PSD and the Government of Portugal,” he affirmed.
The Prime Minister also assured that the selection criteria “will be fair and must be transparent.”
“The criteria will be the best service in the context of the national network of our health units, our hospitals, and the entire infrastructure network in the health area,” he said, declaring he would stand by “any decision” and hoped for understanding from everyone, in Caldas, Torres Vedras, or Bombarral.
For the municipality of Caldas, the PSD leader only committed to “a model C family health unit with the participation of the city council, the social sector, and the private sector, so that the residents of Caldas have the response that the National Health Service is unable to safeguard today.”
“Those who have ideological issues with this solution are providing a disservice. What is needed is not to follow an ideology, but to address the legitimate claim and the right of citizens to have a family health response,” he argued.
Montenegro praised the qualities of current deputy Hugo Oliveira, predicting that he would have to give up his parliamentary seat starting Sunday.
In a speech of over half an hour, the PSD leader claimed that over the last four years—during which the municipality was governed by the movement “Vamos Mudar,” which is contesting these elections in coalition with the PS—the municipality has stalled.
“The future does not reside in more or less cloaked party projects and does not reside in candidates who are asserting themselves only because there’s a national leader who wants to be on posters across the entire country,” he remarked, also referring to Chega and its leader André Ventura.
Beforehand, the PSD/CDS-PP candidate argued that if the future hospital is not located between Caldas da Rainha and Óbidos, it will be “a territorial, technical mistake and will not faithfully fulfill its function.”
In a similar vein, Fernando Costa, former mayor of this municipality from 1985 to 2013 and head of the list for the Municipal Assembly in these elections, made an appeal to the PSD leader: “Montenegro, order a serious study on health for the north zone of Lisbon,” he urged.
The former mayor spoke for almost 20 minutes, even before the dinner, with the organizers turning up the music louder. With the microphone sound cut, Fernando Costa continued speaking on stage until he was heard again in the pavilion.
