The CDS-PP and Bloco de Esquerda went public today to ask for the resignation of Isilda Gomes, following the controversy surrounding of the vaccination of the mayor of Portimão against Covid-19.
The request was made directly to the mayor, at the Portimão Chamber meeting this Wednesday, both by councilor José Caçorino, from the CDS-PP, elected by the Servir Portimão coalition, and by councilor João Vasconcelos, from BE.
This afternoon, the two parties sent notes to the newsrooms, reaffirming that Isilda Gomes is unable to stay ahead of the Chamber's destinies and that she should abdicate her position.
BE says that "Isilda Gomes is unable to continue as mayor of Portimão, and must present her resignation", after "having been vaccinated against Covid-19, going ahead of many other priority users, violating thus the criteria of the vaccination plan'.
The CDS-PP, on the other hand, defends that the socialist mayor must draw "the due lessons and consequences" and that "she does not have any political conditions to continue to exercise the position".
«Republican Ethics, so dear to Socialist Party militants, necessarily imposes that Dr. Isilda Gomes presents a public apology to the people of Portimo and that she resigns from her position, which is the only way to leave her duties with a streak of dignity,” the centrists defended.
At today's Chamber meeting, you know the Sul Informação, Isilda Gomes presented the same justification for taking the vaccine that she had already given to the media: the fact that she was a volunteer at the Covid-19 inpatient campaign hospital, located in Portimão Arena.
On Monday, the day we learned of the mayor's vaccination, Isilda Gomes assured our newspaper that she was only vaccinated for that reason. The mayor is doing volunteer work, within the scope of the “Virtual Visits” project, in which virtual calls are made between hospitalized patients and their families.
The Chamber of Portimão, on the other hand, num post made on facebook the same day, explained that the mayor's vaccination was a "necessary condition" for her to be a volunteer in this project.
On the other hand, says the municipality, "on the opening date of CHUA Arena, all those who exercised functions were vaccinated."
These justifications, as well as those that the mayor belongs to a risk group, did not convince opposition members.
The CDS-PP alleges that, because Isilda Gomes did not have “any risky contact with Covid-19 patients as part of her volunteer work, she illegally and illegitimately benefited from a public benefit (a vaccine that, at the moment, is scarce !), which configures a very serious situation of abuse of power, which wounds its public and political credibility to death».
The centrists from Portimo urge the mayor to reveal “how many people from Portimo, in multiple activities (such as the Fire Department, the National Scout Corps or volunteers in the health area, among others), in a noble, anonymous and selfless way, since the beginning of the pandemic , do daily voluntary work (many in contact with Covid patients) and how many of them are already vaccinated at this time».
The Left Block points out that “the criteria of the vaccination plan do not include volunteering”.
“According to the health authorities, the criteria defined for the vaccination plan against Covid, due to insufficient vaccines, are very clear: in this 1st phase, health professionals directly involved in providing care to patients should be vaccinated; professionals residing in homes and similar institutions; professionals and hospitalized in continuing care units; professionals from the armed forces, security forces and critical services and, now, firefighters», they list.
Also included in the list are 'people aged 50 and over with heart or kidney failure, or with chronic coronary or respiratory disease', as well as 'all people over 80'.
“The situation is even more serious when, even today, about three dozen trainee doctors and other health professionals working at the Hospital de Portimão have not yet been vaccinated against Covid and they do not know when they will be”, the blockists also say.
The CDS-PP/Portimão says it will wait until the end of this week for the mayor's resignation and, if that doesn't happen, it will “present a motion of censure against Dr. Isilda Gomes at the Municipal Assembly of Portimão”
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