The President of the PS (Partido Socialista)-Azores, Vasco Cordeiro, defends the “urgent need to resume social support measures,” namely to “resume the Regional Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion,” which was abandoned by the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition government.
The candidate for President of the Regional Government of the Azores was speaking after visiting the Casa do Povo da Maia in Ribeira Grande.
“It’s very important to resume this strategy, so that our region can also resume the path of reducing and improving a set of indicators that have been improving for several years. According to the latest data available, from 2022, the Azores are back on the sad podium of being the poorest and most unequal region in the country,” said Vasco Cordeiro.
For the President of the PS/Azores, this strategy must be resumed “in partnership with institutions and with social responses that are essential,” exemplified by crèches (day care centers).
“It’s important that policy in this area is rethought in order to ensure that crèches are not just for the neediest families, but also for those where, for example, both parents work and who need this type of response in order to continue working and developing their careers,” he pointed out.
Vasco Cordeiro also defended the revision of housing policies, “not only to guarantee this right to those who are in a more fragile situation” but also for the “so-called middle class which, as a result of the evolution of the economic and financial situation, finds itself in great difficulty in securing its right to housing.”


“Public policies must also be directed towards this aspect,” he insisted.
The President of the PS/Açores recalled that these early regional elections are the result of the “inability of the three coalition parties (PSD/CDS-PPPM) to guarantee the stability needed for a regional government,” an inability that has also resulted in the “deterioration of regional finances.”
“The Azores are not following the good economic path that the country is on. And it’s not political issues at stake, because Madeira is following the positive national evolution. Unfortunately, in the Azores we have a very marked financial deterioration. For example, the debt to suppliers of our three hospitals, at the end of the third quarter of 2023, reached a record amount of 150 million euros and this translates into the asphyxiation of the companies that supply these hospitals, the endangerment of the jobs of these companies and the weakening of the conditions in which health care is provided to the Azoreans,” said the candidate for President of the Regional Government of the Azores in the elections on February 4, Vasco Cordeiro, according to a PS statement.

in Diário dos Açores, Osvaldo Cabral, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)

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