Paulo Raimundo points to extraordinary 7.5% rise in pensions

This Friday in Arraiolos, the PCP Secretary General defended an emergency pension increase of 7.5%, retroactive to January, as well as the right to retire with 40 years of discounts without penalties.

“Here we want to reaffirm a commitment to those who have worked all their lives: a commitment to an emergency pension increase, guaranteeing an increase of 7.5%, with a minimum of 70 euros and retroactive to January, including thousands and thousands of retirees. last year and do not take into account the growth of reforms,” Paulo Raimundo told many elderly people among the approximately 250 supporters attending the dinner.

The communist leader also added “a commitment to guarantee fair access to pensions and without penalties for those who have worked for 40 years with 40 years’ discounts.”

“40 years of work is more than enough time to have the right to retire without any sanctions,” he emphasized.

At the rally, held in the multifunctional pavilion of Arraiolos, where he began by listening to the Alentejo singing group and later even added his voice to the group, Paulo Raimundo dedicated part of his speech to pensioners from the CDU (Coligação Democrática Unitária). campaign initiative combining PCP and PEV) to also highlight the importance of quality of life for older adults.

“Retirees in this country have the right to respect and to an aging life of quality and dignity. Increasing life expectancy is neither a problem nor a burden; it is the development of civilization that must be protected and the treaty respected,” he said, not forgetting those who “started working life when they should have been in school.”

Paulo Raimundo also held the PS and PSD responsible for “containing or reducing the value of reforms” and emphasized the influence of the CDU on the growth that has occurred in recent years.

“With the exception of the period during which they increased between 2017 and 2021, due to the decisive actions of the PKP and the CDU, this was the only solution for an emergency increase in pensions. Another measure of those that the PS did not want, but which by force of people we forced the PS to take this fair measure. Beyond this period, they were either frozen or virtually undervalued,” he stressed, lamenting the many older people “living in poverty” or with “severe” deprivations in their lives.”

The communist general secretary criticized the PS once again, and in recent days he has done so more sharply, given that the “PS is shrinking” in the face of economic groups to which he attributes “deepening injustice” in Portuguese society.

“His choices lie on his conscience, his concessions to the interests of the powerful, the markets, the neoliberalism that comes from the European Union, his contribution to the profits of large groups and the reality of workers. There is only one reason for the obvious repentance of the PS: the PS itself and its variants, clearly visible during this period of the absolute majority,” he noted.

The initiative in Arraiolos was attended by the head of the CDU list in Évora, deputy Alma Rivera, similar to what happened in another initiative on the sixth day of the campaign in this district. Although the CDU failed to elect a deputy for Évora in 2022, Raimundo staged a call to vote in the constituency in the March 10 legislative elections.

“It’s time for a better life to which we all have the right, it’s time to give more strength to the force that is needed, it’s time to give more voices, it’s time – for the sake of these people – to elect Alma Rivera and give back their voice to the people of Évora in the Assembly of the Republic “, he concluded.

More than 10.8 million Portuguese are called to vote on March 10 to elect 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

18 political forces, 15 parties and three coalitions are participating in the elections.