The prime minister said on Friday that the president of the republic can analyze the diploma on housing “in complete serenity” and express his opinion after the holidays, but stressed that “there is a serious national crisis” in this area.
“It’s not a problem if [Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa] statement on the diploma only after the holiday. We all deserve a good holiday and the President of the Republic, a very active man, also deserves a rest,” said António Costa.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the works in Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, the head of government opined that there was “no rush” and that the President of the Republic “has time in all serenity to appreciate the degrees and then decide what you want to decide about it”.
When asked if he fears that the diploma could be vetoed, the prime minister did not immediately respond and stated that the head of state “has and will exercise his own powers”.
“I am not here to speculate or in any way determine the exercise of his own powers by the President of the Republic,” he stressed.
António Costa stressed that “there is a serious national housing crisis” that needs to be responded to and defended that while there are “one possible answers”, the Mais Habitação program has “a very diverse range of interventions targeting the private sector, cooperatives and also to municipalities and the State”.
The Prime Minister stressed that “the diploma approved in the Assembly of the Republic is one of the elements of this program”, but it is now necessary to separate it to see “what the President of the Republic has to say” .
“The word crisis is often used in vain, but if there is an issue to which the word crisis applies, it has to do with housing,” he defended, insisting that “the result of different circumstances, a combination of different factors, the cost of housing has risen very substantially, whether homeownership or rent”.
Costa believed that “the deterioration in interest rates by the European Central Bank has not made the situation any easier and that it is necessary to create a series of incentives so that houses that are not on the market are put on the market and that land that is not being profited be used for construction, and that there is more public promotion of housing in order to regulate the market”.
“And above all make housing more accessible, especially for the younger generations,” he defended.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, on a beach in the Algarve, where he is on vacation, the president of the republic indicated that he had already received the housing package and that he had “20 days” to make a decision , that is, until August 29.
“Theoretically eight days to get before the Constitutional Court and then another 12 days to enact or veto it. It will be what I will spend my mornings and nights on for the next few days, even on vacation,” he said.
“It’s perhaps the issues at the beginning that are the most ‘divided’ and controversial, at least one of the laws. [Uma] it is an operating law of the public administration, to make housing construction and access to housing faster and end bureaucracy, the other is the one that enforced rent and local housing. [Para] I need to take a closer look at this one,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Source: DN
