Local elections: CDU once again nominates former councilor for Alcobaça City Council

Rogério Raimundo, 74 years old, admitted to the Lusa news agency that he was surprised that the CDU proposed him as the head of the list for the Alcobaça Council, considering his age, although he feels 55 years old. “I have the energy to fight this good battle for the causes of the municipality, in which I always try to have a large participation” he stated.

The candidate points to social and housing areas as priorities in the municipality. “These are the dramas that Alcobaça has”, he pointed out, while stressing that the CDU program is a “very clear alternative to the PSD that has governed Alcobaça all these years”.

“The mayor [Hermínio Rodrigues] [PSD] has been saying for the past four years that he would build a building for young people in Alcobaça, in the city centre, but none of that has happened. We are practically in the elections and the first stone has not even been laid yet”, he criticised.

Rogério Raimundo also mentioned a study, paid for by the local authority in 2021, which revealed that a thousand families urgently needed a home. “There was no rental solution, which is the most immediate response, nor was there any restoration intervention, which would be a good measure to restore old buildings and allocate them to needy people, with an affordable rent”, he said.

In addition to this “touchstone”, the CDU candidate says he is concerned about the lack of continued care, which he considered “a total failure”, as it forces some people to remain hospitalized unnecessarily or to be referred to services outside Alcobaça.

“It is an absolutely necessary and urgent response and the chamber, together with the IPSS and the charities, could fill this gap and provide this response”, he stated.

Rogério Raimundo was a CDU councilor at the Alcobaça City Council for several terms, from 1998 to October 2017. He was also a member of the Alcobaça Municipal Assembly and the Cela Parish Assembly. A mathematics teacher for 30 years, he was an association leader at the Cela Performing Arts Center for 50 years. A union leader at the Central Region Teachers' Union for 15 years, he was a case manager as secretary and as president of the Alcobaça Child and Youth Protection Commission.

Rogério Raimundo's candidacy is the second to be announced in the municipality, after Chega confirmed Isabel Ventura's re-election and the PS presented Diogo Ramalho as the head of the list.

The Alcobaça Chamber is led by the PSD, which in 2021 obtained 43.18% of the votes, electing the mayor and three councilors. The PS, with 29.99% of the votes, elected three councilors to the executive.