Legislative elections: CDU says that “it is necessary and possible” to recover the deputy elected by the Algarve

The CDU candidate for Faro yesterday criticised the “tourism monoculture” in the region, the difficulties in accessing housing, mobility problems and the lack of investment in the public health sector.

Catarina Marques stressed that “it is necessary and possible to recover the deputy elected by the Algarve” and called for a vote of “courage and freedom, because the Algarve does not need the politics of the PS and PSD, or the fascist breath of those who are deceiving and lying”.

“The Algarve is a land in the south, a land of April, where the values ​​of freedom and democracy will always be present, a land where hope and confidence in a better future find a place in the CDU”, said the first candidate.

“There are nearly half a million people living in the Algarve, thousands of women and men who every day do the math to cope with the growing difficulties, whether in terms of the rising cost of living, access to housing, healthcare or transport. We have heard about the difficulties faced by those who work in having the dignified life they deserve,” said Catarina Marques.

During this campaign, he reported, “in the markets, traders complained that they were not selling more because people had no money. In a region where exploitation is widespread and people earn little, it is urgent to increase wages and pensions, as the CDU advocates, by 15 percent, to a minimum of 150 euros per worker. And for retirees who have barely earned a living, it is now fair, an extraordinary increase in all pensions and benefits by five percent, to a minimum of 60 euros.”

In the region’s shopping centres, “workers tell us about unregulated working hours and insecure employment relationships. The Algarve is the area of ​​the country where precarious employment prevails and where more than 75 percent of employment contracts are precarious, not only in commerce but also in tourism. We need to regulate working hours and put an end to precarious employment, which is a scourge especially for young workers.”

He added: "Those who live and work in the Algarve need a quality and accessible National Health Service (NHS). But the reality we face is months of waiting for an appointment, hospital services closed, surgeries performed far from home and enormous despair when it is necessary to respond to an emergency", he added.

Still in the area of ​​health, the CDU's first candidate asked for "the construction, once and for all", of the Algarve Central Hospital, rejecting the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model "that they want to impose on its construction and management".

Catarina Marques highlighted the housing problem. “How can we fulfil the constitutional right to housing if people cannot afford to have a home? How can we keep workers in our region if they have great difficulty finding a place to stay? The answer lies in increasing the public supply of housing, combating property speculation, boosting the cooperative movement, combating interest rates, as well as halting the rise in rents and stopping evictions.”

Finally, as a way of concluding her speech, the candidate recalled that “years go by and investment is slow. The political choices of successive PS, PSD and CDS governments are to position the entire region as a machine for producing profits for large economic groups, especially in tourism. The Algarve is based on the monoactivity of tourism. We have nothing against tourism, but the region cannot continue to disregard other aspects of our productive system, such as agriculture, livestock farming, fishing and industry. This is unlike what has now happened in Silves, where the Corticeira Amorim unit is to be relocated , also putting the jobs of dozens of workers at risk”.

In a district won by Chega in the 2024 legislative elections , the CDU this week put forward « 30 priority measures for the region , which, if implemented, would be a true and decisive change of direction towards the alternative policy that we need», it concluded.

In turn, Heloisa Apolónia, a lawyer and former member of the Ecologist Party “Os Verdes”, speaking, issued a warning “about what is at stake” in the elections on 18 May.

“It is important to tell people not to be fooled or deceived,” and he gave as an example the recently approved Land Law approved by the AD government.

«One of the biggest problems the country is currently facing is housing. What pseudo-solution did the PSD-CDS government find for this issue? The Land Law, which will further increase speculation. There is nothing about controlling rent prices. There is nothing about a commitment to more public housing.»

In the area of ​​health, he recalled that the right-wing programme foresees “five PPPs for hospitals and 174 privately managed health centres. This is just a sample of what they want, to put health in the hands of the private sector, instead of financing the NHS properly”.

Regarding transport, more criticism of the government. “The Algarve line still needs to be fully modernised and fully electrified. It takes people around three hours to make the journey from Vila Real de Santo António to Lagos. This is unthinkable. The underfunding of infrastructure and rolling stock continues.”

Heloisa Apolónia also warned about the “Water that Unites” agenda, asking for “a lot of attention. The desire for privatization is real. The PS, PSD and CDS want to privatize this absolutely fundamental sector. And instead of fighting to rationalize the use of this fundamental resource, what they do is give large economic groups the possibility of building more large and enormous infrastructures that will jeopardize much of our biodiversity and have an extraordinarily high environmental impact. For large companies, the recipe is obvious.”

“It is clear who these people want to serve and who they actually serve. Luís Montenegro says he wants reconciliation with pensioners. There have already been pensioners in this election campaign who have told him face to face that they have not felt anything different in their miserable pension compared to what it was and what it is now,” he said.

And he concluded with a call for reflection: “Montenegro was parliamentary leader when Pedro Passos Coelho, then prime minister, cut pensions. Be careful! At the slightest excuse about the need to balance the public accounts, believe me, they will not hesitate to cut pensions again. It is absolutely essential that people are alert because Montenegro, as parliamentary leader at the time, said absolutely nothing against this matter of pension cuts.”

"Their objectives are absolutely clear. When you hear talk of a reformist spirit, know that this means favoring large economic groups more and failing to ensure the needs of citizens," he concluded.

In turn, the general secretary of the PCP considered that «people are tired of promises that are repeated election after election: it will be in the future, it will be resolved now , but then everyone's life becomes increasingly difficult, going further and further backwards».

“People are tired, they are rightly discredited, their lives are difficult and they are being pushed towards resignation, towards easy ways out, towards illusions, towards demagogy and lies,” he said.

“It’s like this all over the country and it’s like this here in the Algarve too, but this has not, cannot and will not continue like this”, he stressed.

Throughout his speech, Paulo Raimundo focused on the topic of health, in a district where the lack of professionals in the NHS is especially felt.

“Democracy cannot be guaranteed without access to healthcare. We need to observe this ongoing process of accelerated distribution of the NHS by the hands of the PSD and CDS, aligned with the Liberal Initiative and Chega, following the disastrous choices of the Socialist Party on this matter”, he stressed.

«With this project of hope, we appeal to workers, we appeal to the population, we appeal to the youth to put their foot down , to turn the board of this game that is rigged , where a group of men always wins».

“ Punch the table , turn the tables and reject lies and demagogy,” he appealed.

Raimundo also stated that "wages here in the Algarve are lower than in our country, in contrast to the price of everything, where everything is more expensive. What is important is to combat poverty, especially child poverty, which is rampant in this region."

In 2024, the CDU had less than half the votes in Faro compared to 2015, having been the sixth most voted political force in the last elections, in which Chega, PS and AD obtained three deputies each.