José Pedro Caçorino, 60 years old, was born in Bolama, Guinea-Bissau, lived in Angola until August 1974 and at the age of 13 he came to Portimão. He is a professional in the insurance business. A member of the CDS-PP, he has already held several municipal positions, namely that of councilor in the Chamber of Portimão. He is also the head-of-list of the CDS-PP to the Legislative Elections of 30 January, for the constituency of the Algarve.
With José Pedro Caçorino, he continues the series of interviews that the Sul Informação is publishing, with all the heads of the list of all the political forces that are candidates for the constituency of the district of Faro.
To all, and in a logic of equal opportunities, the same questionnaire with 12 questions was sent, in a timely manner.
The answers are, of course, diverse, as will become clear over the next few days, with the publication of all the interviews.
Sul Informação – What are the priorities of your political force for the next legislature for the Algarve?
José Pedro Caçorino – We consider it urgent that, in the next four years, the Government and the Assembly of the Republic take on board and assume once and for all the resolution of the most serious problems facing our region.
First of all, the issue of lack of water, which, year after year, threatens our lives and our economy.
Then the health in the Algarve, which has clearly deteriorated in the last six years, despite the promises of the PS and its contraption partners.
Another problem continues to be the lack (or deficiency) of public transport and mobility in the region, which has also worsened in this legislature.
And we cannot forget the endemic problem of lack of access to housing at decent prices (whether for acquisition or for long-term rental) and the excessive dependence of our economic model on tourism and the activities associated with it.
For the CDS-Partido Popular, these are the most pressing problems that need to be resolved in the Algarve.
And, if we don't get to work quickly, the tendency is for it to get worse.
SI – What led you to accept being the head of the list for the party or political force you represent?
JPC – I accepted to be the head of the list for the CDS-Popular Party in these elections, first of all, because I think I can be a different and more assertive voice in the Assembly of the Republic, in defense of the Algarve and the Algarve.
I am from the region and have always lived and worked here, so I know the reality of the Algarve well, its problems and challenges and I am sure that I can take these causes to the Assembly of the Republic.
If the Algarve people trust me with their vote, I will not go to Parliament to be another deputy for the CDS-Popular Party, but rather to be the spokesperson for the Algarve in S. Bento!
On the other hand, contrary to what happens with other candidates, I am not committed to the past, in the sense that I was not already a candidate for deputy or even elected, making promises that I later failed to keep!
Finally, I accepted to be a candidate because I am identified with the causes, proposals and political strategy of the CDS-Partido Popular.
SI – What are the expectations and objectives of your political force in relation to these Legislative Elections?
JPC – At the regional level, our main objective is to re-elect a deputy from the CDS-Popular Party for the circle of Faro.
We believe, moreover, that this election would be a decisive step to place on the agenda of political and parliamentary debate the major problems that affect our region, affirming therein our proposals and contributions to the resolution of these same problems. At the national level, our party's ambition is to increase the number of seats in the Assembly of the Republic, thus making a fundamental contribution to the formation of an alternative political majority in the area of the moderate right, which will make it possible to put an end to the six years of government of the Socialist Party, with the support of the parliamentary extreme left.
SI – What remains to be done in the Algarve?
JPC – First of all, Lisbon and the public authorities need to look at the Algarve with the attention and importance that our region has, giving it the weight and level of public investment it has long deserved.
The Algarve is tired of being seen as a peripheral region, which only deserves consideration two months a year, when the country comes to bathe.
We have to realize that one of the problems in our region is the lack of political and advocacy weight in Lisbon, and that problem later has numerous practical consequences.
I cite, as an example, the Hospital Central do Algarve. For over 25 years, this hospital has been a promise repeatedly postponed by various governments, of different party colors!
And this happens to a large extent because the region, its political and economic agents, the municipalities, the associative movement, in short, our civil society, do not have the capacity to unite and demand from the central government the investments and public policies that we are entitled. This for me is a decisive question.
Then, in terms of sectors, we have great needs, in areas such as health care, transport, mobility, housing, and it is also urgent to rethink the economic model of our region, which is too dependent on tourism.
On the other hand, I believe that the Algarve – like the country – suffers from major problems of asymmetries and inequalities in terms of investment, development and equipment.
It is necessary to look with another attention and care to the barrocal and the interior of the region, because the Algarve is not just the coast.
SI – Health is a deficit sector in the Algarve and in the country. What measures do you recommend to solve the health problems in the Algarve?
JPC – Health in the Algarve is one of the biggest failures – if not the main one! – of the PS government in the last six years.
And I do not accept that they use the pandemic as an excuse to justify this failure, because even the most distracted know that Covid-19 arrived in March 2020, but the troika had already left Portugal in May 2014.
Now, if Dr. António Costa went to the government at the end of 2015, this means that the PS had more than four years until the arrival of the pandemic to attack and try to solve the health problems in our region. And then it clearly failed!
As for proposals for the problem, I begin by demystifying an issue that has been misrepresented by the extreme parliamentary left: the CDS-Popular Party does not want to end or privatize the National Health Service!
This claim is false and has to be disproved! What we defend, as far as the Algarve is concerned, is the reformulation of the SNS, because as it stands today, it does not respond to the needs of our population!
The SNS in the Algarve needs more public investment, but the money is not enough.
We need to strengthen the primary care network, hiring more family doctors and general and family medicine doctors.
We urgently need the Central Hospital, because the Hospital de Faro has no capacity to respond and no longer has room to grow!
But it is also essential that the CHUA units in Portimão and Lagos have more medical specialties, which they have lost in recent years, and that they reinforce their response in complementary diagnostic methods and outpatient consultations.
There is another issue that has been mentioned for a long time and has never really been a priority, which is the incentive for health professionals to come to the Algarve and settle here!
We defend that the State should create a package of incentives and aid (in terms of remuneration, but also of per diems and subsidies) that is attractive for doctors, nurses and other health professionals to come to settle here.
Finally, we argue that, as a last resort and in cases where the SNS does not provide a timely and effective response to users, in surgeries, consultations and medical examinations, the State must contract with the private and social sector, allowing people to have an alternative in good time, with the health check, not being harmed just because there is no answer on the SNS.
It is unacceptable for an Algarvian to spend months – or even years – waiting for surgery or an appointment, just because the SNS has no resources and cannot respond in time!
SI – And what about Hospital Central do Algarve? When should you move forward and why?
JPC – As I have already said, I believe that the construction of the Central Hospital of the Algarve should proceed immediately, within the framework of a more comprehensive strategy for the reform of the SNS in the Algarve.
In fact, I think it's a priority!
It must advance, first of all, because the Hospital de Faro it is obsolete and does not have the space and physical capabilities to grow or be remodeled.
And it must advance, above all, because the creation of a major hospital of reference in the region is essential to modernize health care in the Algarve, allowing the creation of a true university teaching and research center in the area of Health and generating critical mass in the area of health.
I have no doubt that it would be another factor that would help to establish health professionals in our region and improve the provision of health care in the Algarve!
SI – The previous government advanced with the Decentralization of Competences to the Municipalities. What balance do you make of this process?
JPC – I have a very negative opinion of this process, both in terms of the way it was developed and of substance.
It was a confusing process, messy and managed in a clumsy way by the Government.
As far as the form is concerned, it seems to me that it was a mistake to create a calendar at different speeds, which led to the fact that, at various times, we did not know which municipalities had or had not accepted which specific competences.
As for the substance, I believe that it was almost a “washing of hands” on the part of the central government, since, at the limit, at the end of the calendar, it forcibly imposed the transfer of competences, without caring to know whether or not the municipalities had true conditions for accepting them.
I remind you that it is not the same thing to transfer competences in the health area, for example, to a municipality the size of Loulé or Castro Marim.
However, these differences were not properly addressed and, in general, the central State did not provide the municipalities with the necessary financial means to pursue the new powers.
SI – Should a future government move forward with Regionalization? Why or why not?
JPC – Regarding this matter, I believe that, first of all, we have to know which regionalization model, specifically, we are talking about.
If the idea is to create administrative regions, in the image and likeness of the autonomous regions, with a new regional political class, more appointments and more public expenditure, I would be against that proposal, as, incidentally, happened in the 1998 referendum, when the Portuguese people rejected this model.
If, on the other hand, we consider a model that concentrates on a regional entity, to be elected by universal and secret vote, the competences, human and financial resources currently dispersed by various entities of the deconcentrated administration of the State (such as the regional directorates, for example), I believe that we can seriously consider moving forward with regionalization, as long as there is a broad public debate, in which citizens are informed about the advantages and disadvantages of the model and are called upon to speak in a referendum.
In any case, and in relation to the Algarve, given our idiosyncrasies, whether historically, culturally, geographically and sociologically, I believe that we have privileged conditions to be a pilot region, as long as there is courage to amend the Constitution of the Republic, ending the requirement of the simultaneous creation of administrative regions.
SI – In the Assembly of the Republic, resolutions have been passed to end tolls on Via do Infante or, at least, to introduce significant discounts. What do you think about this topic and what solutions do you recommend?
JPC – I have no doubt that the tolls on the A22 should end, at least for residents of the Algarve and for companies and businesspeople in the region who use that road to work (for business trips, distribution of products and goods, passenger transport, etc. ).
It is obvious to anyone who knows the Algarve that the EN 125 is not a real alternative to the A22, so I find it unacceptable that this route continues to be paid for in the current way (albeit with discounts) by residents and businesses in the Algarve.
If elected, I make a commitment to the Algarve to take this proposal to the Assembly of the Republic.
SI – At the beginning of the current pandemic crisis, the Government announced a specific plan for the Algarve, which never came to fruition. What does Algarve Tourism need to recover from the pandemic?
JPC – The Algarve needs an economic support plan that is not limited to the economic consequences of the pandemic.
In this particular area, I would say that the Government continues not to look properly at companies and entrepreneurs, particularly those sectors that have suffered the most from the pandemic.
In addition to not having created specific responses to support areas of activity that were heavily penalized during these two years (I cite, by way of example, tourism, culture, catering or small commerce), we continue with a very high tax burden on companies and with levels of bureaucracy and uncertainty that do not help investment, the relaunch of economic activity and job creation.
I think it is essential to create specific incentives and support for a region like the Algarve, which lives largely on tourism and for tourism!
The government has to look at the specificity of our economy and our business fabric, otherwise the responses created in a generic way do not effectively respond to the specific problems of our region!
Afterwards, we consider it essential to launch a serious debate on the diversification of the Algarve's economic model.
In the context of the post-pandemic, it is necessary to think about how to diversify economic activity, promoting the installation of industries, namely technology-based, that allow reducing dependence on tourism and the activities associated with it.
SI – In the case of more fractious issues, such as regionalization, tolls on Via do Infante and health, among others, if you are elected, will you vote for the AR according to your conviction, even if it goes against the guidelines of your party?
JPC – First of all, it doesn't seem to me that issues such as health in the Algarve or tolls can be considered nowadays as fracturing!
These are issues in which there must be a commonality of efforts, regardless of ideologies and party colors, in order to promote concrete solutions to the problems of the Algarve.
So, I don't see how we can talk about party or voting disciplines, so our conscience as representatives of the Algarve and the defense of the superior interests of the region should always prevail, whatever the position or orientations of the party!
SI – Do you want to add any more topics or questions?
JPC – I just want to say to the voters of the Algarve that, in the current situation of our region, they should not be carried away by the bipolar narrative that PS and PSD, with the help of some media, insist on foisting on the Algarve.
The Algarve is in the situation it is in thanks to the inability of these two parties, which cyclically elect most of the mandates in the region, to solve our problems!
See the case of the head of the PS list. He was in the Government for more than a year and now he appears in this electoral campaign trying to convince the Algarve that the SNS in our region is doing well and is recommended!
It is necessary to give voice and strength to new protagonists, who are not politically tainted by the inertia and incapacity of the political center!
It is in this presupposition and with this desire that I present myself to the Algarve and ask for your vote on the 30th of January!
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