The head of the European CDU list wants the ECB to cut interest rates “quickly”

The head of the European Central Bank’s CDU list, João Oliveira, said this Wednesday that it is necessary to cut interest rates “as quickly as possible” by the European Central Bank (ECB) to prevent a further decline in purchasing power.

“We now face a serious challenge, namely the policies of the European Central Bank (ECB),” with statements “recently” that “interest rates cannot fall yet because the labor market is still too strong,” he said. said.

This ECB concept means that “there is not yet a sufficient level of unemployment to reduce the wages of those who work”, added João Oliveira from Montemor o Novo (Évora).

“Because the European Central Bank believes that the best way to control inflation is to reduce the purchasing power of people, both the salaries of those who work and the pensions of those who are retired,” he criticized.

But these policies “do not serve the Portuguese people” and must be “confronted” to prevent the “continued degradation of purchasing power,” assured the CDU candidate for the European elections, who spoke to Lusa after attending a public meeting. with pensioners, pensioners and elderly people in Montemor o Novo.

What is needed is to “reverse the rise in interest rates and lower interest rates as quickly as possible, so that this has immediate consequences for the living conditions of families, the cost of home loans, and for small and medium-sized companies.” , contributing to the development of their activities,” he said.

In front of more than 50 elderly people and pensioners, the head of the CDU list in the European elections on June 9 also defended a general increase in pensions of at least 7.5%, with the amount of the update not allowed to increase. less than 70 euros per pensioner.

And this is “really a decision that serves all pensioners”, confirmed João Oliveira, comparing that the government’s decision to increase the basic value of the solidarity supplement for older people (CSI) only covers “the pensioners segment”.

Large-scale pension increases “leaving no one behind”, while CSI “is the opposite of that” and “the number of beneficiaries is very small”.

In his speech at the meeting, as well as in his statements to Luse, the CDU candidate also criticized the electoral program of the Liberal Initiative (LI) regarding pensioners, accusing the party of intending to “make a deal with pension funds.”

IL wants to “create a business in everything it touches, and they also want to do business with pension money. They want to replace Social Security with pension funds, and the money used to pay pensions and pensions to the elderly can be used in the ‘roulette’ of speculation, as pension funds do around the world,” he said.

Now this model has had “tragic consequences in the form of successive pension fund failure scandals that leave pensioners penniless day after day,” he criticized.

IL, he continued, “doesn’t admit it openly, because if it were, no one would support such an idea,” but he found “a way to get the younger ones into the idea that they bear the burdens of the older ones.” and that it is a burden to their lives.”