CDS-PP President Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos today accused the government, led by socialist Antonio Costa, of violating public and political consensus in the fight against the pandemic.
“At the national level, I would like to tell Antonio Costa, who has now returned from a dubious mini-opinion, that his government – I don’t know if it noticed – has broken the public and political consensus in the fight against the pandemic,” Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos told municipality of Pedrogan Grande (Leiria), where he presented candidates for local elections.
According to the Christian Democrat, “no one realizes that the government is rigorously applying the same measures that it applied a year ago, in completely different circumstances” from those that the country is experiencing today.
“If we have more and more people vaccinated, if the most vulnerable population is already additionally vaccinated, if the pressure on the NHS [Serviço Nacional de Saúde] it is well controlled and the number of deaths is very low because the government is imposing such restrictive measures that make us go back so far in terms of deconfinement and kill our economy using a risk matrix inadequate to the real danger of the disease in Portugal? “, – he asked.
Francisco Rodriguez de Santos said the data available today shows that the country has “half the hospitalizations” than a year ago and “10 times fewer deaths,” in addition to breaking “records in Europe” today. Union for the number of vaccinated per 100,000 inhabitants ”.
Stressing that “the number of infected is not the number of sick,” the centrist argued that “protecting public health requires tough measures,” but Portugal does not need “disproportionate measures that destroy” the economy and “fuel fear of people.” Portuguese”.
Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos also stated that he did not want “a path of political irresponsibility, in which those who should be on the front lines do not show their face”, asking a new question: “How are sanitary measures announced weekly? minister [de Estado e da Presidência] Vieira da Silva, not a health minister who is hiding and does not have the political courage to take responsibility for the measures the country is taking week after week? “.
“We continue to look for a scientific rationale that can in some way confirm this formula that the government is adhering to,” he said, noting that while “other countries are starting to face the pandemic and this crisis caused by [novo] coronavirus as a chronic disease ”, in Portugal“ is receding more and more ”.
In his speech, the Christian Democrat also warned about the increase in fuel prices “for the seventh consecutive week”, considering it “an attack on the Portuguese wallet through inexorable taxes from the side of the socialist government.”
“Portugal applies the highest fuel taxes in the European Union,” he said, noting that “the Portuguese are trapped to the last drop by the price of fuel” in a country “with low wages, but a leader in fuel taxation.”
According to the latest estimate by France Presse, the covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 3,980,935 deaths worldwide as a result of more than 183.7 million infections with the new coronavirus.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, 17,117 people have died and 890,571 cases have been reported in Portugal, according to the General Directorate of Health.
