Jerónimo de Sousa, the General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party, has accused Portugal’s President of not being up to the job.
Additonally, de Sousa has called for the resignation of the government over the failure by its leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, to come up with any plausible excuses for his past reluctance to pay his social security account.
Jerónimo de Sousa was speaking at a lunch in Seixal commemorating 94 years of the Portuguese Communist Party CFP and was on good form with plenty of material on which to base his arguments.
Due to the 'lack of ethics' in the Passos Coelho case, de Sousa considers that President Cavaco Silva clearly in unsuited to occupy the high position of responsibility assigned to him by the Portuguese people.
"Cavaco Silva is not up to the job that currently he occupies, as he is just a helper to Passos Coelho and his government."
Jerónimo de Sousa challenged the idea that Portugal is returning to normal, “What is this normal when we see the prime minister of a government that has unleashed the most violent attack on workers' incomes, who ordered charges and liens without any ‘ifs’ or ‘buts,’ which led to hell for many Portuguese, to say that he did not comply with his obligations due to forgetfulness or ignorance of the law?"
The coordinator of the Left Bloc, Catarina Martins, demanded the Prime Minister shows his Social Security slate is clean before the fortnightly debate next Wednesday in Parliament.
Speaking at a Left Bloc lunch in Pechão, Olhão, Martins said that Passos Coelho has not really answered the questions that he has been asked about his social security contributions between 1999 and 2004, so is "unfit to hold office."
