This Thursday, the PSD president tried out an event at a textile company in Anciana (Leiria), which he says is “exclusive for prime ministers”, but wants to wait until the nomination and assumption of office to debut with the title.
The fifth day of the caravan campaign of AD (a coalition uniting PSD, CDS-PP and PPM) began at Avelmod, a company that produces clothing and exports it to several countries in Europe and even Asia, employing about 140 workers, but which had more than 400 of them.
Luis Montenegro visited the factory for about half an hour during working hours and greeted the workers from afar: “Good morning, good work.”
At the final part of the visit, in a kind of store for sale to the population, the leader of the SDP was already waiting for him to try on a jacket, a little larger than usual, which he explained by the excess of food during the campaign. and “made to factory conditions”
“Don’t make me so fat, I’m between 52 and 54 years old, but I admit that with the ongoing campaign I’m closer to 54,” he said when he got a size 56.
Asked by reporters, Montenegro said he was “confident” that he would actually be able to change his suit at the end of the campaign, and when asked whether the outfit would be appropriate if he were opposition leader, he said no.
“No, this is exclusive to the Prime Minister,” he assured.
While the seamstress was taking measurements for the rest of the suit, one of the administrators came to bring a piece of paper with the address for sending the clothes, on which was written Palacete de São Bento, on Rua da Imprensa à Estrela, the official residence of the head of government.
The newspaper was also titled “His Excellency the Prime Minister of Portugal”. At this stage, Montenegro wanted to be more cautious and assured that “this will only happen after the nomination and assumption of office.”
Asked if it would be a suit instead of the one he wore on Wednesday when an activist hit him with green paint, he admitted there was “no cure for it anymore” and even found traces of paint on his wedding ring on Thursday. morning.
The leader of the CDS-PP, Nuno Melo, who accompanied the visit, as well as the head of the AD list of Leiria, Telmo Faria, had already left the factory with new beige pants to replace those damaged in the same episode. as an activist in Lisbon.
From Manuel Arnaut, one of the administrators of Avelmod, he heard complaints about the crisis in the textile sector, which has worsened since October last year.
“Our sector has fallen into deep crisis during Covid, we have literally stopped. Between 2020 and 2021 we had a bumpy ride, we reopened with some caution and continued to grow until October last year when it stopped again,” he said.
When asked by the representative of Montenegro whether this was due to a lack of demand, he answered in the affirmative, adding a consumption crisis or an increase in production costs, for example, electricity.
“We clearly did not have enough support measures, we must create a way to focus on quality,” explained the administrator.
Manuel Arnaut also complained of “a lot of pressure on the banking sector”, especially Banco de Fomento.
“We had to go into debt in 2020 and 2021 because the company just stopped. We sensed a lot of intransigence, they are hiding behind community standards, they are using brutal pressure to meet deadlines,” he said.
When asked by Lusa about the situation with delayed salaries in the company, the administrator admitted that there were months when they could not pay salaries in full on the required day, but said that at the moment the situation had been resolved.
“We are working to ensure that this does not happen again,” he assured.
Leiria was one of the circles in which the PSD lost a deputy – whom Montenegro expressed confidence in being able to restore in the early legislative elections on March 10 – as well as the first place in votes for the PS.
In 2022, the SDP elected four deputies, as did the PS and Chega hmm.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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