João Oliveira was this morning in Algueirão Mem-Martins, in the municipality of Sintra - the most populous parish in Portugal, with almost 70 thousand inhabitants -, to address the disinvestment in the railway and criticize the "budgetary restrictions" of the European Union (EU), which he considered to prevent the country from strengthening its commitment to public transport.

With a ticket to catch the 10:20 train to the Oriente station, in Lisbon, João Oliveira ended up staying 20 more minutes on the platform because that train ended up being cancelled.

"He really hit the 'bullseye'", joked a user.

The candidate took the opportunity to distribute CDU leaflets to most of the users who were waiting for the same train as him and who, in general, complained about the daily delays they suffer on the Sintra line.

Speaking to journalists, João Oliveira defended that "a different approach" is needed in railway policy, considering it "unacceptable that public investment continues to be cut to meet European budget targets".

The candidate promised, if elected, to fight in the European Parliament for "another type of consideration of public investment rules" and also so that Portugal can have "a reindustrialization policy that allows it to produce trains".

"If we had the capacity to produce trains and eventually, on the Sintra line, some new trains could have been running for a long time, meeting the needs of the population", he said.

Then, aboard the 10:45 train, accompanied by PEV leader Mariana Silva, who is part of the CDU lists for the European elections as number four, João Oliveira went through the carriages appealing for a vote in the coalition, to ensure that there are those who fight in the European Parliament "for more investment and more trains".

"It is necessary, yes. The delays cause inconvenience because the boss never waits for us when we arrive late for work", agreed one of the users, who, sitting by the window, wished João Oliveira "strength" for the elections.

At Reboleira station, in Amadora, where he got off the train, João Oliveira spoke to journalists again, highlighting that the Sintra line is an example of the state of the railway, because "for more than three decades there has been no investment in modernizing the line, in increasing the number of trains".

"It is a path of disinvestment to meet the deficit targets and the rules of the euro, but that does not serve the population", he criticized, defending an increase in public investment in the railway, mainly supported by the State Budget and complemented by European funds.

Next to the old SOREFAME facilities, which produced railway rolling stock until its extinction in 2001, João Oliveira once again criticized the EU, stressing that the company was dismantled "in the name of the rules of the single market, of privatizations, and of the delivery of national strategic sectors to other foreign companies".

"We effectively need a different path of reindustrialization of our country and of recovering that industrial production capacity that we have been losing over the years", he considered.

The candidate also criticized the railway policy of national governments, whether PS or PSD, which he considered to make "announcements and propaganda", but then not make a "serious commitment" to trains and "placidly accept the restrictions of the EU".

"More than political flags of promises that are never fulfilled, what we needed were flags that, at railway stations, would give trains the signal to leave. We needed those flags, it was a sign that there was an investment in the railway", he joked.

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