“I think this is a non-news item, because the real news would be that Gouveia e Melo is not a candidate. It was a piece of news that had been defined many months ago, long ago, and which has now been announced,” stated Paulo Raimundo, speaking to journalists during a CDU rally in Setúbal.
Raimundo refrained from commenting on the timing chosen by the former Chief of the Naval Staff to announce his candidacy, noting that “‘the timing’ was chosen by himself.”
“We already knew he was going to be a candidate. Did anyone find this news strange? I don’t think so,” he added.
The secretary-general of the PCP expressed that the CDU is not focused “on announcements or pre-announcements.”
The CDU is focused “on what matters,” such as salaries, pensions, housing, and the National Health Service, he emphasized.
“Our time is now. It’s today, tomorrow [Thursday], Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, when we want a significant turnout to address these problems,” Raimundo declared.
The PCP procession began around 5:00 p.m. at Praça do Bocage, where a PS rally is scheduled to take place later today, following another march through Setúbal.
When questioned about whether he would greet PS Secretary-General Pedro Nuno Santos, Paulo Raimundo replied that the campaign did not allow for it as he needed to proceed to “another battle.”
At the conclusion of the march, former CDU deputy Heloísa Apolónia, number three in Setúbal, once again criticized the calls for strategic voting, asserting that a vote for the CDU “is a useful vote.”
For the former deputy, a vote for the CDU is a vote “for equality, freedom, rights, non-discrimination, against hate speech, against racism, against xenophobia, for the rights of all in an equal society.”
The head of the list for the constituency, Paula Santos, criticized the PS for failing to support CDU proposals to strengthen workers’ rights, as well as proposals to increase the national minimum wage to 1,000 euros.
“What is needed are not PS deputies, nor PSD, much less from the Liberal Initiative and Chega, who, at the time of truth and confrontation, always choose the side of business management. What we need are deputies who stand by those who work,” she criticized.
In his speech, Paulo Raimundo, who has been calling for several upheavals (to youth and women), today urged micro, small, and medium-sized business owners to “slam their fists on the table.”
“Your enemy lies in electricity costs, your enemy lies in telecommunication costs, it lies in the price of rent, in banking costs, in insurance costs. That’s where the enemy is. Rise up against those who want to tighten your lives,” he urged.
[Updated at 7:16 p.m.]
