The “More Housing” case is still “unclosed” – lack of regulation and return to Marcelo’s hands; Montenegro hopes that Costa will take advantage of the ‘last chance’ that this offers [o Presidente] given to the prime minister to “save the country”; Brussels, without commenting on Costa’s letter, says EU measures already exist for affordable housing; Mário Centeno warns that already this year “about 70,000 families with permanent housing loans could have expenses in excess of 50% of their net income”; Nuno Melo has already asked the European Commission if it has received information about new socialist legislation that “violates the right to property, which is a constitutional right”; and Cavaco is about to publish O Premier and the Art of Governing – a new book – about how “the behavior of a Prime Minister of Portugal” should be.
The ‘natural pressure’ on the government is ‘increasing’, as one socialist source puts it, but with Belém ‘leading’ in the challenge of government action and ‘not only’ in housing. “And that request to inspire new leaders is not innocent with the argument that the old ones do not open the future,” said the same source.
“What remains to be regulated and put in place, is that enough to produce effects within the envisaged period? Yes or no? I don’t think so, the government thinks so,” said Marcelo, who recalled that he was still a word to say.
Montenegro, who underlined the “failure” of a country “always with an outstretched hand.” [referência à carta à Comissão Europeia]sided with Marcelo, firstly in “his political veto” and secondly because there was “one last chance”. [o Presidente da República] gives Doctor António Costa the chance to save the country”.
The first housing plan – “a comprehensive program of affordable housing” – was announced in 2015 by Costa, who pledged the following year “to immediately spend €1,400 million, through the Social Security Financial Stabilization Fund, on the rehabilitation of public assets awaiting on rehabilitation, expanding sources of Social Security funding” for rent – the futile promise, because of the “rise in construction costs”, of 7,500 affordable homes that could serve 35,000 families”.
“Unfortunately, Dr. António Costa and the PS have been governing for eight years. Eight years is the time of two terms in office. They have had more than enough time to show what they are capable of,” said the leader of the PSD, who believes that the The PS housing program “has no chance” of being successful and that it will be “limited” to the use of money from the PRR.
A reading that almost coincides with the statements of the EC spokeswoman for economic and financial affairs that she guaranteed, referring to “a wide range of financing”, that several European measures are already planned to facilitate access to housing, including in Portugal.
“They exist [medidas previstas para] housing for students at affordable prices, for example in the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan, with a total estimated cost of €1.15 billion. There is a reform in Ireland (…) that will increase the supply of social and affordable housing,” said the spokeswoman, giving another example: in Spain [onde] there is a program for the construction of social housing in energy-efficient buildings, with an estimated cost of one billion euros”.
Veerle Nuyts referred to various Community programs without responding to Portugal’s request for new measures.
“This is a failure as a country. We need help to get close to the most developed countries in Europe, but a country that always has an outstretched hand and lives only from an outstretched hand is a country without a future,” Montenegro concluded.
The former finance minister in the PS government between 2015 and 2020, the current governor of the Bank of Portugal, warned this Monday about the need to avoid defaults on family loan payments, explaining that “about 70,000 families [eram 36 mil em 2021] may have expenses related to the permanent home loan that exceed 50% of their net income”.
Mário Centeno also recalled that “the (external) economic environment is showing signs of slowing down and even showing recessive dimensions. Eurozone economic indicators released in July are not encouraging, but the recession avoidance scenario remains central. of our reviews”.
For his part, the president of the CDS, Nuno Melo, announced that he has already sent the European Commission a new question about the Mais Habitação program to find out “whether Costa” has already deigned to inform Brussels in recent months about the restrictions in Portugal, which are of a nature that we have already seen, well, maybe in Venezuela”.
Source: DN
