The right-wing parties met this Thursday in a last-ditch effort to postpone the vote on the government program Meer Wonen, but the proposal was rejected by the PS, with the support of the BE.
A vote is taken on the Mais Habitação program in the specialty and an IL request was discussed at the beginning of the session proposing to postpone the votes.
The proposal was supported by PSD and CH, but rejected by left-wing parties.
IL deputy Carlos Guimarães Pinto justified the request in view of the “material changes” that had meanwhile been presented by the PS, “things he previously forgot to put in the More Housing package”, and accused the socialists of “the absolute majority to force the vote”. , without public discussion.
The IL deputy recalled that the package now being voted on “contains measures that were not foreseen” when relevant entities were heard, as they believed they should be given another chance to speak out at new hearings.
In addition, Carlos Guimarães Pinto regretted that there was no “any attempt to do anything by mutual agreement” between all parliamentary groups and underlined that “it was important” that housing legislation was the result of a consensus.
“If we want a resilient, consensual package with legal stability, […] maybe we need more time,” he stressed.
The IL initiative was supported by the PSD, with Márcia Passos deputy recalling that the Social Democrats submitted a request rejected by the PS on Wednesday precisely to hear “some entities” about the “amendments that have been put forward until the last minute and then submitted the deadlines established in the working group” of the Assembly of the Republic on housing.
She also stressed that the amendments to the package “contain material too serious to trample this process”, the deputy accused the PS of “successively amending” the bill and asked for “more time”.
Deputy Filipe Melo (CH) added the “doubt” about “some of the proposals” going to the vote.
“The degree isn’t bad, it’s terrible,” he appreciated, as “the delay could only help and never harm” the More Housing program.
For the PS, deputy Hugo Carvalho rejected the postponement of the votes and underlined the importance of “moving on” to the next steps.
“There is significant support that will not reach families until this package is approved,” he stressed.
Deputy Mariana Mortágua (BE) agreed with the need to go to the polls, but added that she will vote against the package, accusing the PS of “mismanagement of the specialty process”.
“I don’t see any reason for us to delay this voting process,” he insisted, adding that “there won’t be a consensus, it’s not worth pretending we think alike.”
PS withdraws proposal for interpretation rule access to income support
The PS decided to withdraw the proposal for an interpretation rule clarifying that access to income support also includes income subject to special rates.
This decision was announced in the course of this Thursday by PS deputy Hugo Carvalho at the beginning of the voting process in the specialty of the government proposal and proposals to change the More housing program.
In “a sign of good faith” and to allow the process to be “as calm and sensible as possible”, the PS “withdraws the interpretative standard”, explains Hugo Carvalho.
It is a proposal for an interpretative rule of the Socialist Party to determine that “the concepts of annual income and average annual income referred to in Article 5 of Legislative Decree No. 20-B/2023 of March 22, which creates under income assistance is include the income taken into account for the purpose of determining the applicable general IRS rate, the specific deductions for the IRS income taken into account for the purpose of determining the rate, as well as the income taken into account for the application of the special rates referred to in Article 72 of the same Code”.
This interpretative standard arose after the criticism that arose around an order from the State Secretary for Tax Affairs to clarify the method of calculating social assistance benefits.
It should be noted that the PSD and BE welcomed the decision of the PS.
Source: DN
