In statements to journalists during a demonstration of public sector workers, called by the Common Front of Public Administration Unions, in Lisbon, the coordinator of the Left Bloc (BE), Mariana Mortágua, considered that there is a "certain feeling of disappointment in the country" with the PSD's electoral promises.

"The PSD ran a campaign and, over the last few years, talked a lot about the careers of the security forces, of the public sector, and there is a huge disappointment with what it delivered, after having said everything it said, and having said that it would value these careers, increase salaries", she criticized.

The leader of BE defended that, on the part of the Government, there was "no commitment either to careers, or to the minimum wage, or to the average wage".

The Government "talks a lot about the security forces, it has not resolved the risk allowance for the security forces, it has not resolved the issue of judicial officers. Problems are dragging on with no solution in sight", she also criticized.

The general secretary of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, also defended that the electoral campaign ended just over a month ago "and there were commitments that were made, to which it is necessary to respond".

"It is necessary not to find now the justifications for not fulfilling what was promised to various sectors of workers", he argued, insisting that "it is necessary to value careers, it is necessary to increase salaries, and to end once and for all the injustice that prevails every day in society".

"We are facing a Government that, unfortunately accompanied by the IL and Chega, and in connivance with the PS, has a program and a project that take into account everything except valuing these workers and their careers, and I would even say that the main objective is to dismantle public services", he criticized.

In these statements to journalists, the two leaders were also questioned about the resignation of the president of the Social Security Institute (ASS), Ana Vasques, with Mariana Mortágua considering it legitimate for the Government to want to have people it trusts in the leadership of various institutions, but criticizing it for "humiliating in public" those who held public office.

"I think the Government would do better if it admitted to the country that it is making political appointments, and that it admitted that this is normal, and did not accuse people and public services of incompetence", she said.

Paulo Raimundo considered that these dismissals and resignations are part of the Government's desire to "implement its program as quickly as possible" and "take advantage of all the spaces it has to implement this program".

"To do this, it needs to fit its pieces into these fronts in order to implement its program", he said.

Regarding the statements by the president of parliament, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, who considered today that a deputy can say in parliament that one ethnicity is "lazier or dumber" than another, Mariana Mortágua said that they are "serious".

"The president of the Assembly of the Republic has just validated the idea that it is possible for a deputy, anyone, to diminish another nationality or group of people by attributing to them characteristics that are offensive. Our Constitution is not founded on these values", she said.

Paulo Raimundo stressed that each deputy "swore to comply with and enforce the Constitution, and there are things that cross the red lines of what the Constitution of the Republic is".

"Freedom of opinion is a value in itself. It cannot be questioned, but it also cannot be separated from a set of other matters that are in the Constitution of the Republic", he said.

Read Also: Thousands of public sector workers in protest (Portuguese version)