“The country does not need to build weapons; it needs to build trains, which is what is needed, not weapons,” stated Paulo Raimundo in Silves, Algarve.
The communist leader made this statement during the presentation of CDU’s top candidate for the Silves City Council, Luísa Conduto, located in the Faro district, for this year’s municipal elections.
In his address to approximately 500 communist party members, Paulo Raimundo argued that Portugal “does not need research for bombs,” advocating instead for “more research and support for science and technology, to serve health needs and produce the medicines we lack.”
The PCP leader asserted that Portugal “needs childcare centers, homes for the elderly, healthcare, salaries, pensions, and rights for those who live and work here.”
Following his criticism of the “astronomical profits” within the banking sector and the government’s policies on education, health, and housing, Paulo Raimundo urged voters to support the CDU in the upcoming legislative elections, claiming that “the country needs a change in policies.”
In the Algarve, the PCP’s secretary-general expressed the view that the region does not require more tourism but rather more affordable housing for all who reside there.
“The major challenge at the national level is whether we want a country destined to be a tourist ‘resort,’ because Portugal is not a province of the European Union, an appendage of the United States and NATO,” he noted.
Paulo Raimundo declared that Portugal is a “sovereign country that can and should define its path, development, and progress based on its own reality.”
“The country needs more production, more investment, and development; that indeed is the path that must be taken,” he concluded.
