Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) secretary-general Paulo Raimundo took his party’s message to the stage in the Algarve, visiting Lagoa’s FATACIL fair, before addressing a rally in Olhão, where he called for a shift in economic and social policy for the region.
Raimundo used the visit to criticise the current PSD/CDS Government over what he described as inadequate investment, low wages, precarious employment, and the region’s overdependence on tourism.
For reference, Portugal’s Communist Party, founded in 1921, is one of western Europe’s oldest communist parties. It spent most of the 48-year Estado Novo dictatorship in hiding, with members facing imprisonment, or exile, before emerging as a major political force after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. The PCP enjoyed considerable influence in the years after the revolution, particularly in the now-dwindling industrial areas of the south and Alentejo, however, as industry has been replaced by the trendier cash-stream of tourism, their weight in the country’s political scene has lightened.
At the 2025 general election, they won just 2.9 per cent of the vote and three seats in parliament, one of the PCP’s weakest results in its history, despite a committed activist base, and a significant influence in organised labour movements.
At the FATACIL, the party leader met artisans, exhibitors, and small business owners, hearing concerns about the difficulty of preserving traditional crafts, a lack of support, rising raw material costs, and fuel costs, as well as the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on sales.
According to the PCP, the concerns raised at the fair reflect the wider pressures facing small producers, including what it described as tax inequalities and increasingly narrow profit margins.
Later, hundreds of party members and supporters marched along Avenida da República in Olhão to Largo da Restauração, where a dinner-rally brought together PCP and Communist Youth members and supporters of the Festa do Avante.
The event featured flags, chants, and a strong presence of young Communist activists. In the political speeches, Leonor Pintassilgo highlighted the growing activity of the Communist Youth in schools and among young workers, while Celso Costa and Raimundo focused on what they see as the Algarve’s unresolved social and economic problems.
On housing, Raimundo said recent Government announcements offered “no relief” to people struggling to find or keep a home.
He also accused the Government of allowing the National Health Service to deteriorate in order to benefit private interests. He pointed to the planned public-private partnership for the construction and management of the Central Algarve Hospital, as well as plans for new Model C Family Health Units in both Lagos and Silves.
The PCP leader was equally critical of the level of public investment in the region. “Delay and absence are what define the reality of the Algarve,” he said, arguing that several projects considered strategically important remain unfinished or unrealised.
Among those he highlighted were the upgrading of national roads 124 and 125, the dredging of ports and harbour entrances, the proposed Alcoutim–Sanlúcar bridge, and a regional abattoir.
Raimundo also criticised the Algarve’s economic dependence on tourism, arguing that the sector is built on “exploitation through low wages, precarious contracts and unregulated working hours”. Despite repeated record tourism revenues, he said, Algarve workers were left with low wages and pensions, an “unbearable” cost of living, and daily difficulties in achieving a decent standard of living.
The PCP leader ended by calling on workers to remain mobilised, citing what he described as the defeat of the Government’s proposed labour package as evidence that collective action could deliver results.
Source: Sul Informação
Photo credit: PCP Algarve
