Liberal Initiative leader Rui Rocha admitted this Sunday that he was tired of seeing the country “always with an outstretched hand to Brussels” and defended the need to solve internal problems and restore the Portuguese’s confidence to build, especially in terms of housing.
“I don’t want a country that always reaches out to Brussels, I want a country that manages to solve its problems and rebuild confidence in the Portuguese,” Rui Rocha said in a conversation with journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with militants in Póvoa of Varzim, Porto district.
Asked if he, like the president of the republic, expects the European Commission to pay attention to the letter sent by the prime minister about housing problems, the leader of the Liberal Initiative admitted to being “a little tired” of the seeing “the Prime Minister, António Costa, always with his hand outstretched”.
“I must confess that I am already a little tired of this image of Portugal and especially of the Prime Minister, António Costa, who always stands with his hand outstretched, unable to solve the country’s problems, unable to find solutions for the country’s problems and then resort to Brussels, as if Brussels has a responsibility to solve what we actually have to solve internally,” he said.
Rui Rocha, who already believed that the letter to the European Commission constitutes an acknowledgment of the “huge failure” of the Mais Habitação package, defended that the program “is a good example of the political problems that António Costa has created for the country creates’. .
“We all know the promises of that [o primeiro-ministro] what he has done in the eight years he has ruled Portugal. Promises are always broken from a housing point of view,” he said, citing the lack of beds in university residences and decent housing for the most deprived.
“What we see is that in a country where it was currently necessary to build 100,000 houses a year, we have 30,000 houses because the government of António Costa has taken all the confidence out of the market,” he added. This reinforces the criticism that has already been leveled at the More Housing package.
On Friday, the housing minister said the letter sent by the government to the European Commission identifies housing as a “Europe-wide” priority, in a list that aims to define “the major common challenges”.
Speaking to journalists in Entroncamento, the official explained that “the letter sent by the Prime Minister [para a Comissão Europeia] is sent every year [desde 2022] to define priorities at European level”.
The government has sent the European Commission its priorities for 2024, in a series of fifteen proposals, including a European initiative for affordable housing or a “framework for the resilience of water surfaces and water availability”.
L sees the debate surrounding the presidential election as a ‘completely obvious’ debate
Liberal Initiative leader Rui Rocha this Sunday viewed the debate surrounding the 2026 presidential election as “completely obvious”, arguing that it would only be understandable if the country did not face other problems.
“To be honest, I can’t even understand this eagerness about the presidential election that has now been settled in Portugal, because it would be understandable if we didn’t have any problems,” said Rui Rocha on the sidelines of a meeting with militants in Portugal . Póvoa de Varzim, in the Porto district.
Rui Rocha argued that the 2026 presidential election should not be at the center of the political discussion, as the debate surrounding this issue is “completely out of time”.
“Political parties don’t want to talk about health? Don’t they want to talk about housing? Don’t they want to talk about taxes?” he wondered, saying the presidential election is not the Liberal Initiative’s race.
“We are in the race for the concrete problems of the Portuguese,” he said.
And he added: “Those who have no solutions, those who have nothing to offer the country, may be interested in running a presidential race which, let’s bear in mind, will be almost two and a half years from now. to last”.
Source: DN
