Statement by João Oliveira, 1st. CDU candidate for the European Parliament and member of the Political Committee of the Central Committee, National Demonstration of Young Workers

There are many reasons for the Portuguese youth to fight for an alternative policy that responds to their problems

Today's demonstration and the mobilisation that took place, both in Lisbon and Porto, and which we welcome, shows that young workers are not waiting for either the governments or the majorities in the Assembly of the Republic to fight for their rights, to demand improvements in their working conditions, their living conditions and their future prospects.

The solidarity of the PCP, today, with its presence in this action, is associated with the initiative and political action that we carried out yesterday in the Assembly of the Republic, with the presentation of some legislative initiatives that correspond to some of the youth’s demands.

Proposals for a general increase in wages, as well as an increase in the minimum wage; proposals to end the expiry of collective bargaining; proposals aimed at solving healthcare, housing and education problems.

These are solutions to very broad problems that affect the Portuguese youth, including young workers, and, therefore, we express solidarity with concrete political initiatives and actions for these problems to be resolved.

Naturally, this correspondence is linked to problems that are deeply felt.

Today, there are many reasons for the Portuguese youth to fight, both in responding to labour issues and in responding to social problems - education, healthcare, housing - that appear in several other dimensions of national life.

But also, in the struggle for an alternative policy that offers a wider response to the problems of the daily lives of millions of youth in Portugal and of those who were forced to go abroad and who want to find perspectives in their country to be able return.