"One of the greatest achievements of democracy was the right to health. An achievement of April that autonomy in the Azores developed. We are far from having a Regional Health Service (SRS) capable of meeting all needs, it is true, but we see it increasingly fragile", said the leader of the Left Bloc in the Azores, António Lima.

According to the also member of parliament, the SRS was not weakened "only from the fire" at the Hospital do Espírito Santo (HDES), in Ponta Delgada, on May 4th.

"The recent disaster at the hospital in Ponta Delgada is a hard blow to the SRS", said the bloc member in the solemn session of the Day of the Azores, which this year takes place at the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores (ALRAA), in the city of Horta, Faial island.

António Lima praised "all the work that the health and civil protection professionals have done and continue to do to respond to this serious moment" and expressed "the deepest solidarity with them and with all SRS users".

For the leader of BE/Açores, "it is urgent to find solutions for the present, but above all a project for the future of the SRS".

"It is urgent that those who govern the Azores stop pushing the SRS towards the precipice from which it has been approaching for a long time. Enough of empty speeches about health, while nothing is done for it", he said.

"It is in the affirmation of the alternative to the path of abandonment of the SRS that has brought us here, that its recovery and the development of the Azores lies. Planning, investment, organization, appreciation of its workers. In democracy there is always an alternative. We are here to build it", he added.

The BE deputy also referred in his speech to the 50 years of April 25th to say that they are "the 50 years of freedom and democracy, of the end of the long fascist night, which allowed us to conquer autonomy".

He then admitted that the democracy that is also celebrated today "has many flaws, insufficiencies" and "is far from having solved all the problems of the Azores".

In his opinion, we have also witnessed "too many times, in recent times, on the part of those who govern the Azores, attempts to force - sometimes in a veiled way, but also in a frontal way - the opposition to resign from its role in democracy".

"When those who govern classify the opposition's proposals as 'nonsense' or 'politicking', while excluding parliament and, in particular, the opposition from essential information about the current critical moment, they do a disservice to democracy", he concluded.

The commemorations that are taking place today in the city of Horta are a joint organization of the Legislative Assembly and the Regional Government of the Azores, following the institution of the Day of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, in 1980, to commemorate the Azorean identity and autonomy.

The date, a regional holiday, is celebrated on the Monday of the Holy Spirit.

In the solemn session, 31 Azorean honorary insignia will be awarded, which aim to distinguish citizens and entities that have distinguished themselves "for personal or institutional merits, acts, civic deeds or for services rendered to the region".

Two autonomous insignia of value, ten autonomous insignia of recognition, two of professional merit, three of industrial, commercial and agricultural merit and 14 autonomous insignia of civic merit will be awarded.

Read also: IL/Açores regrets the region's poverty and calls for "more daring" policies (Portuguese version)