PCP, BE and Chega on Thursday criticized the new interest rate hike decided by the European Central Bank (ECB) and challenged the government to force banks to use their profits to reduce mortgage terms.
The ECB announced on Thursday a new increase in the three main interest rates by 25 basis points, the tenth consecutive increase, bringing deposit rates to the highest level ever in the eurozone.
Speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic, BE parliamentary leader Pedro Filipe Soares accused the ECB of “an action of financial terrorism against families” and “tremendous social insensitivity”.
“It would be incomprehensible if this were combined with the social indifference of the government (…). It is necessary and indispensable for the government to ensure that banks are called on to use these profits to reduce mortgage loans”he said, emphasizing that BE has already presented a proposal along these lines in the past, which was rejected by the majority of the PS.
‘Without this law we will only have an omen for the rich’said Pedro Filipe Soares, pointing to banking sector profits of around two billion euros in the first half of the year.
In the same vein, PCP delegate Duarte Alves asked the government and the Bank of Portugal for “a strong position rejecting this interest rate increase” and “concrete measures to face the impositions of the European Union and the euro.”
“Measures such as those presented today by the PCP, which guarantee the reduction of repayments, allowing banks’ profits to support the rise in interest rates”he said, emphasizing that the bank “makes a profit of 11 million euros per day.”
For Duarte Alves, the government is obliged not only to approve these types of measures by the PCP, but also to mobilize Caixa Geral de Depósitos so that, as a public bank, it takes on a role to ‘influence and contribute to the entire banking market to reduce the debt burden’. of bank credit”.
‘News like today only gives the PCP’s proposals more strength’he defended.
For Chega, deputy Rui Afonso criticized that “a half-dozen bureaucrats in Frankfurt manage to dominate countries”, accusing the ECB of carrying out “blackmail on the countries that are part of the eurozone” without any social concerns.
‘We need a government that is not subordinate to Frankfurt, that imposes itself on the ECB’s monetary policy’he defended, pointing out that there are already hundreds of thousands of Portuguese who “have to choose” between paying the rent, food or education for their children.
The deputy argued that it was necessary to say ‘enough for bank profits at the expense of interest rate increases’and, like BE and PCP, defended that “this value should be transferred to support home loans”.
As already announced, in the debate on tax cuts planned by the PSD for the 20th, Chega will submit a proposal to apply an extraordinary contribution to the banking sector, as is already happening in the energy sector and the large distribution sector.
Source: DN
