The PSD chairman opined on Friday that the decentralization process promoted by the government was a “flop”, criticizing the “limited financial resources” transferred to local authorities.
“These transfers only serve to ‘fill in the gaps’ and that is not what it should be. It is a process that has been a ‘flop’ and is nothing more than transferring a series of expenditures from central government to local authorities, but without any room for maneuver,” said the leader of the Social Democrats on the sidelines of a visit to a farm in Vila do Conde, in the district of Porto.
This topic of decentralization was discussed on Thursday by Luís Montenegro during a meeting with PSD mayors from the Porto district, as part of the party initiative ‘Sentir Portugal’ and should also be discussed this afternoon during a meeting with Rui Moreira, president of the Chamber of Porto.
“It has now been two years since we celebrated this with the movement [independente] under the leadership of Rui Moreira, a political agreement for the administration of the Chamber of Porto, and we will take stock of the first half of the mandate and address very important issues of local power and the city,” Montenegro said.
The PSD leader expressed his “great concern about the sense of insecurity that exists in Porto”, detailing that “several areas are identified with problems, especially related to drug use”.
Still within the ambit of local power, Luís Montenegro brought forward the 2025 local elections, setting goals for the establishment of the PSD.
“The party’s goal is to greatly increase its local representation, especially in the Porto district, where we lead only five municipalities. We want to regain important chambers such as Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Gondomar or Valongo, and of course work to win over municipalities such as Vila do Conde and Matosinhos,” he declared.
However, the chairman of the Social Democrats acknowledged that “it will be difficult to win all the chambers in the district”, but he was confident “that the PSD will submit good candidacies”.
“We are going to contest the 18 chambers of the district, knowing that there are political, local and regional conditions for wanting to win these elections,” he concluded.
Source: DN
