During a rally at the Espinho Forum for Art and Culture, Paulo Raimundo, began by acknowledging the temptation to make jokes about Espinho, where Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s company Spinumviva was based.
“It would be easy to make puns about Espinho. However, the people of this land, the fishermen, the workers, those who live and work here do not deserve jokes, they do not deserve puns,” Raimundo stated, emphasizing that the CDU does not confuse the individual with the collective.
Later in his speech, while critiquing those who “praise developed countries” and put Portugal “at the forefront” with rhetoric like “Portugal this, Portugal that,” Raimundo referred to the term “nheca nheca,” which he used in a debate with André Ventura, leader of Chega.
“I am not going to do the ‘nheca nheca’ now,” he began, then backtracked in front of a full audience: “Okay, let’s talk about the ‘Portugal of nheca nheca’,” causing widespread laughter from the crowd.
The communist leader noted that those who talk about the “nheca nheca” should explain “if there is any developed country, any country progressing where wages are miserable and extremely low.”
“It is in the interest of workers to have increased salaries, but it is also in the interest of the economy and the country for all salaries to rise, for careers and professions to be valued,” he insisted.
Earlier in his remarks, Paulo Raimundo had addressed the urgent need for wage increases, calling it the great “national emergency.”
“And it is not an emergency for 2029 because if it were for 2029, it would not be called an emergency,” he criticized, referring to the PS proposal of a minimum wage of 1,110 euros for 2029 and the AD proposal of 1,100 euros for the same year.
From the perspective of the PCP secretary-general, this proposal is simply “kicking the can down the road,” which the CDU rejects.
“Now, some of us don’t even have a can — or anything to kick. We need to raise wages now,” he stated, amid laughter from the audience.
