In a sole campaign initiative addressing the municipality of Loures, Paulo Raimundo participated this morning in a rally in Moscavide, accompanied by CDU’s candidate for the local government, Gonçalo Caroço.
Loures’ City Hall, presided over by PCP’s Bernardino Soares from 2013 to 2017, was won by the PS in the last local elections in 2021 and is currently led by Ricardo Leão, who gained national political attention in July when he ordered the demolition of shacks in the Talude neighborhood.
At the end of the rally, attended by hundreds of people waving flags and chanting “CDU, vota em gente como tu,” Paulo Raimundo took the stage to describe Loures as “a land of resistance, of struggle, a land of the people, of workers and youth.”
“This is not Texas. There are no sheriffs here. Here there’s the people, participation, and room to build a better Loures for everyone,” he emphasized.
Paulo Raimundo remarked that there is a “demand for change” in Loures, attributing it to residents comparing the current PS administration with that of CDU and noting that in this municipality, “there isn’t a local policy that serves everyone.”
“And when there isn’t a local policy serving all, sooner or later, it falls. It might fall now, in these elections. Fall to us, to the workers, the people, and the youth of this municipality,” he stated, urging for “a great victory for the people, workers, and youth, with a great CDU victory” next Sunday.
During the rally along Moscavide’s main avenue, Paulo Raimundo handed out pamphlets, waved to balconies, and introduced CDU candidates for the City Hall and Municipal Assembly of Loures to people he met.
At a store, the PCP secretary-general listened to complaints from a shopkeeper in Moscavide for 30 years, stating that “unfortunately, the country is more insecure,” recounting crime incidents where she tried to call the police, “but there were no vehicles.”
Raimundo replied that the problem arises from the end of community policing, replaced by “mega stations,” with “many officers inside, but away from the streets.”
“We need community policing, which has various advantages: it provides safety, people get to know the officers better and vice versa. Streets need lighting and life. With life and light, everything becomes safer,” he said.
Later, in his speech from the stage, Paulo Raimundo referred to this conversation to point out that “it’s pointless to shed crocodile tears over insecurity when they are also responsible for ending community policing.”
“They are responsible for keeping the streets unlit and lifeless, and there’s no way to tackle insecurity without community policing, without light, without life in the streets. Those who talk about insecurity while being responsible for the current situation in Loures should face their conscience,” he declared.
