"30 days have passed since this Government took office and there are some things that we are learning about the Government, especially when we read the Government's program. We are learning to interpret what those words mean, we are learning to interpret what is to be fulfilled from that program and what is not to be fulfilled from that program", said Mariana Mortágua.

The leader of BE spoke at the opening of the meeting "Social Security and pensions", an initiative promoted by the party, in Lisbon.

Among the measures that are "to be fulfilled", the coordinator of BE pointed out "the reduction of IRC on large companies" or the opening of "health and pensions to the private sector" and considered that the Government does not want to carry out proposals such as "the reduction of VAT on salaries", stating that it is "a deception, a hoax", or "fulfilling the promises to public servants of essential sectors".

"The Government spent a campaign talking about health professionals, about security forces, about justice officers, spent a campaign criticizing the previous Government - and a well-made criticism for not having managed to respect the careers of these people - and now, when it is their turn to meet with these sectors, with these unions and to give them an answer that they promised to give, they are not giving it, they are not fulfilling everything they say, they are falling far short of the demands of these sectors", she said.

In her speech, Mariana Mortágua accused PSD and CDS-PP of having a record in responding to the elderly.

"What we remember from the PSD and CDS response to the elderly are the victims of Mota Soares [former Minister of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security]. Now we do not know whether or not he will go to the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Lisboa, but we know what he did when he was minister, it was a law of anticipation of reforms that left many people with impoverished reforms, much below what would be their fair reform due to pure ignorance and even cruelty of that law", she said.

The Bloquista also accused the previous PSD/CDS-PP Government of having dismantled "public social responses" and the "rules required by Social Security for nursing homes", of approving a rent law "that expelled so many elderly people from city centers" of having cut "the Solidarity Supplement for the elderly, which is the best mechanism to combat poverty among the elderly".

Mariana Mortágua indicated that the current Government proposes "a paradigm shift in Portugal, nursing homes will no longer be co-financed when they are IPSS and the State will start to co-finance the private sector".

"In other words, what the Government is proposing is to create a market for private nursing homes with services provided by multinationals at the expense of taxpayers' money. Subsidizing private companies to provide services that the State should be providing or, at most, the social sector", she criticized.

The Bloquista leader argued that the private management of nursing homes consists of "handing over to companies a new business paid for with State money so that they can exploit, mistreat, abuse, cut costs, maximize profits from the exploitation of those who need it most, of the elderly".

"We reject this model for Portugal. We do not want the current model, because it is a model that does not respond to the needs of the people, but we do not want this privatizing model", she said.

Mariana Mortágua then highlighted some of her party's proposals in this area, such as greater inspection of nursing homes, a "public network of nursing homes with conditions, with people with labor rights, with associated health care".

The coordinator of BE also defended, for people who do not want to be institutionalized, "cohabitation models, construction and public housing models with care infrastructures", as well as home support scholarships and personal assistants.

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