"We must overcome the challenge of strengthening and empowering the Regional Health Service, especially at the level of primary health care, which is providing an exemplary response following the incident at the Hospital Divino Espírito Santo. Our health system has shown resilience and redundancy capacity", said MP Pedro Pinto.

The centrist was speaking at the start of the debate on the Azores Plan and Budget for 2024, which began today in the Legislative Assembly, in Horta, Faial Island.

In addition to investment in health, Pedro Pinto listed "the economy and demography" as the "other challenges" of the region.

Pedro Pinto praised the social measures implemented by the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition, which has governed the Azores since 2020, giving as examples the increases in the pension supplement, the values of the programme that supports the elderly in the purchase of medicines (COMPAMID) or the support for school social action.

"The social policies implemented by our PSD/CDS/PPM coalition are important for the development of the Azores, breaking with dogmas of the past that stifled our economy, sacrificed middle-class workers and led the Azoreans to emigrate in search of better living conditions", he stressed.

In this sense, he emphasised that, in addition to "attracting tourists, the Azores must also develop the capacity to attract new inhabitants and create conditions so that the Azoreans do not feel the need to seek better living conditions elsewhere".

The CDS-PP MP also highlighted the evolution of the economy, which "has been growing for 36 consecutive months", while in the "time of the outstretched hand it was tied up".

The Azorean parliament today began the debate on the proposals for the 2024 Regional Plan and Budget, without the threat of the rejection of the document presented by the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition executive, but with the PS's vote still "open".

The Budget proposal, which defines the strategic lines of the coalition executive for this year, includes a value of 2,045.5 million euros, similar to that presented in October 2023 (2,036.7 million).

This is the second time that the Regional Government coalition, led by the social democrat José Manuel Bolieiro, has presented a draft Investment Plan for this year, after the previous one was rejected in the Legislative Assembly, in November, with the votes against of the PS, BE and IL and the abstention of Chega and PAN, which led the President of the Republic to call early elections.

Read Also: Chega warns that the Azores are heading towards "financial unsustainability" (Portuguese version)