This was stated by the Secretary General of the PS this Saturday during a debate with Paulo Raimundo on SIC, which was missing from the debate about how wages could be raised in Portugal. Pedro Nuno Santos argues that the increase can only be achieved with a “more modern and sophisticated economy.” The statement came immediately after PKP Secretary General Paulo Raimundo stressed that the CDU’s election program includes a salary revision.
“When we have no desire to take action, the first question we ask ourselves is: how much does it cost? The measure we propose for public administration costs a total of 15 billion euros,” said Paulo Raimundo.
Pedro Nuno Santos accused the CDU of making promises that cannot be kept: “We must respond to problems with the economic and financial capabilities that the country has. It’s time to continue reducing the national debt. In 2025, we were able to show that it is possible to increase wages and reduce the national debt.”
Regarding the SNA, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party stated that “there is a problem that is difficult to solve”, he argues that in addition to the evaluation of health workers and the revision of salaries, there is a need to intervene in organizational improvement, providing health centers with diagnostic resources, giving more autonomy to management hospitals, allow family doctors to order tests to reduce emergency room visits.
Having listed the measures that needed to be implemented, Paulo Raimundo asked Pedro Nuno Santos why they were not applied in the last years of the socialist government.
The debate ended with Pedro Nuno Santos reaffirming his idea that “Portugal must live up to its obligations” to NATO on defense matters and praising the European Union’s coordinating role in helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion.
At this point, Paulo Raimundo declared that the PCP stood for the “path of peace”, against the arms race.
“And instead of putting more money into weapons, if we put this money, this effort, to force those who are involved in war, in all wars, to sit down at the table and look for ways to peace, which is how virtually all conflicts have been resolved , which we know from an international point of view, and we know that this is not an easy road,” he said.
When asked about the death in prison of Alexei Navalny, an opponent of the Moscow regime, the PKP secretary general replied: “He died under circumstances that have yet to be established, which raises doubts as to how he died. And this needs to be clarified all at once for everyone, to the utmost.” But the communist leader went further.
“This is one of many others in which we are completely different from the options offered by the Russian capitalist government,” he added.
The face-to-face meeting between Paulo Raimundo and Pedro Nuno Santos began with the theme of justice: the Socialist leader denied that he was in conflict and insisted on the need for reforms in the sector with a broad political consensus. Here the communist leader criticized the existence of justice for the rich and justice for the poor and accused the PS and PSD of being directly responsible for the state of this sector.
Author: Joana Mendes, Philippa Novais This Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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