“The Prime Minister is the one who is a true egotist,” says Raimundo

O pCP Secretary General today refused to comment on IL's accusations that Communists are instigating protests, but stated that the party supports all housing struggles, and called the Prime Minister "true selfish".

Asked by journalists, on the margins of a public session of the PCP in Amadora, Lisbon, about the statements of the leader of IL, Mariana Leitão, who accused communists and bloggers of instigating the escalation of demonstrations in Porto, Paulo Raimundo said he did not know the statements and did not want to comment them.

“ I don't know the specific statements, but I'm not surprised either. And I, as I do not want to occupy the short time I have from the antenna’s point of view to feed the Liberal Initiative, refuse to comment on it,” he said.

However, asked whether the CFP is associated with the movements that have been manifested in Porto for housing, namely the camped ones, Paulo Raimundo said that the party supports “all actions of expression of indignation and demand” of solutions to the housing problem, which he considered “central”.

Paulo Raimundo also reacted to the words of the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, who asked the protesters not to be selfish, returning the charge to the government leader.

“ The Prime Minister is a true selfish man. Not only selfish, but also at the service of the selfish, the real estate funds, the banking, the speculators”, he fired, adding that “all his politics”, as well as the Aquira and the IL, “are at the service of the selfish”, and that “for selfish, selfish and a half”.

Asked also about the words of the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, that the worst that can happen to a cause, even if it is fair, is to violate the law, Raimundo considered that it was made by the head of state “a statement of principle”, not interpreting his words as an imputation of guilt to demonstrators by police intervention.

The leader of the CFP also returned to criticism of the PS for the abstention announced in the State Budget (OE) for 2027, accusing the socialists of talking about the risk of early elections as a “sorry” to enable the document.

“The PS found a good excuse for, not wanting government instability, maintaining instability in people’s lives,” he said.

Paulo Raimundo also recalled that António José Seguro had already said that rejecting a budget proposal would not necessarily result in new elections and stressed that in a scenario where the OE was flunked the government should submit a new proposal and, if it were not approved, it could govern in twelfths.

On the partial privatisation of TAP, Raimundo said that the Communists will seek, through parliamentary initiatives, “to stop” the privatization of the airline.

In the speech that ended the public session organized by the communists, the leader of the PCP classified this decision as “antipatriotic” and an “economic crime” of the responsibility of PSD, CDS-PP, Aquira, IL and PS.

He ended the intervention by calling for participation in the demonstrations called by CGTP for Saturday, 17th, in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, against the increase in the cost of living.