Cotrim changed a focus in the campaign: age

Coming from a party closely associated with young people, the former IL leader went to a nursing home… for the fourth time in six days.

January 5th, Monday: João Cotrim de Figueiredo visits the Santarém Interparochial Social Center – D.António Francisco Unit.

January 6th, Tuesday: Cotrim has a closed-door meeting at the Liga dos Combatentes, in Lisbon.

January 7th, Wednesday: the same candidate for President of the Republic visits the Maceira Cultural and Social Academy, a nursing home in Leiria.

It was the fourth nursing home that Cotrim visited, only in the last few six days. It’s not by chance.

João Cotrim de Figueiredo is “winking” at the elderlyas summarized by . Coming from a party (IL) closely associated with younger voters, the candidate appears as a favorite among voters up to 24 years of age, in polls.

However, to reach the second round, the votes (only) from young people are not enough. And Cotrim is looking, not only for PSD voters who do not vote for Marques Mendes, and for older ones – and in a country with a very aged electorate.

And, last year, a study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation showed that younger voters are one of the three groups that “avoid” the polls the most on election day; the other two are those with less education and those on the right.

“Don’t forget to get all these people to vote!”, said João Cotrim de Figueiredo at the Centro Social Interparoquial de Santarém, while promising to give more voice to the elderly.

In Leiria, he reinforced that he has a “message for the country that applies to all ages.”

This is because the IL candidate knows that, to be one of the two most voted, he needs not only to focus on voters of other ages, but also on social causes, adds the radio.

“Someone who wants to be president of all Portuguese people, throughout the territory, of all ages,You can’t stop talking about these topics”pointed out the MEP.

“Many of these elderly he has problems specific, some of them the result of lack of interest and lack of attention to their problems”, warned the candidate for Belém.

Cotrim has already addressed issues such as insulation elderly, treatment and access to SNS, or difficulties in the interconnection between the Social Security, hospital institutions and social support centers. Why “There is a lot to be done and little is said about integrated care for the elderly”.

Upon leaving the Maceira Cultural and Social Academy, this Wednesday, he admitted: “I believe that it won’t be the last visiteither to residential institutions for the elderly, or to other entities such as senior universities”.