The CDU accuses the EU of wanting to turn Portugal into a “resort” and vocational training school.

This Thursday, the Secretary General of the PCP said that the European Union wants to turn Portugal “into a “resort” and a training school”, stressing that the country cannot accept these functions and must produce more.

In his speech at the end of the CDU public meeting on national production in Maia, Porto district, Paulo Raimundo once again accused the PS, PSD, CDS “and their friends from the Liberal Initiative (IL) and Chegi” of being “submissive, submissive and kneeling before the imposition of the European Union,” which is “the same as saying: before an instrument in the hands of the interests of transnational corporations.”

“These multinational corporations that determine that in Germany there is industrial production, in France there is agricultural production, and in Portugal there are two questions left: (…) they want to turn the country into a tourist “resort” and a vocational educational institution,” he said .

The leader of the PCP argued that they want “doctors, nurses, soldiers, plumbers, highly specialized workers to be trained in Portugal, so that they can then go and create wealth in their own countries: Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands and so on “

“Now our country, small, landed by the sea, but with history, opportunities, means and resources, cannot afford to come to terms with these two roles: ‘resort’ and professional training,” he said.

Paulo Raimundo argued that the Portuguese could not “be content with a country that is a holiday camp” and believed that it was necessary to “force Portugal to produce so that it can produce more, as it has already done, and import less.”

Warning that unless Portugal changes course it will lose its most highly skilled workers who will continue to seek better conditions abroad, Paulo Raimundo also said that vocational training in Portugal must be transformed into national production.

“It’s incomprehensible that we have a situation where we wait years and years and years before deciding to buy a stroller, and then we wait another years and years and years for others to make them and for us to buy them,” he argued .

According to the PKP secretary general, Portugal cannot continue to “allow a situation in which the country receives thousands and thousands of euros from public funds that are allocated to companies” and then goes to Germany to buy cars.

“Germany sends money here and when it gets here it goes back to Germany because that’s where we’re going to buy the cars. (…) It’s not clear, and we haven’t developed like that,” he said.

This idea was also defended by the head of the European list of the CDU, João Oliveira, who, in a speech to Paulo Raimundo, emphasized that with the closure of SOREFAME, Portugal today finds itself forced to buy trains abroad: from Spain, China and China. Austria.

“Some time ago there was talk about investment from the PRR to guarantee the announced project of the so-called Portuguese train. There were some press conferences, but trains continue to be purchased abroad? But why? Because the current governments are in the interests of transnational corporations,” he accused.

In his speech, Paulo Raimundo also sneered at the interest rate cut that the European Central Bank (ECB) is due to announce this Thursday, stressing that the potential announcement would cause “great euphoria.”

“We recently came here from Porto and there were flag marches and everyone was celebrating this 0.25% interest rate cut. I myself have already calculated how much this will give me in terms of reducing my payment for the next month: let’s see if I don’t take the opportunity to have a long coffee rather than a short one. That should be enough,” he joked.