The Lisbon City Council approved this Tuesday, after the lapse registered last week, the chamber’s proposal to take out a loan of up to 15.3 million euros to finance investments in the context of World Youth Day.
The proposal was again subject to a nominal vote and required an absolute majority to be viable, i.e. 38 votes in favor among the 75 municipal deputies, approved by “11 votes against, 20 abstentions, 38 votes in favor and six absentee chamber”, announced the President of the Lisbon City Council, Rosário Farmhouse (PS).
“To clear up confusion clearly” made on the basis of the table of votes at last week’s meeting, which announced the approval when the result was “rejection”, Rosário Farmhouse asked the deputies to vote again on the chamber’s proposal to take out a loan of medium and long term, up to EUR 15.3 million, to finance World Youth Day investments.
On Wednesday, the day after the first vote, when the decay in the tabulation of the result was verified, the leader of the PS municipal group, Manuel Lage, referred that the proposal would be voted again in plenary and the PS would allow, “by borrowing the necessary deputies” to pass the proposal, which eventually happened, with 13 votes for the Socialists, despite the party’s abstention.
“We don’t want the mayor [o social-democrata Carlos Moedas] have an argument not to hold or not to hold the event of the World Youth Day, which, by the way, is an event that has come to Lisbon at the hands of the PS”declared Manuel Lage.
At the February 7 plenary session, the Council’s proposal to take out a loan to finance investments in the context of World Youth Day (WYD) was announced as approved by the President of the Lisbon City Council, but the result of the roll call vote did not take into account abstentions to obtain an absolute majority, necessary for the viability of the document.
In the nominal vote, among the 75 municipal deputies, the proposal had “11 votes against, 33 abstentions, 25 votes in favor and six absentees from the room,” Rosário Farmhouse said.
In a statement sent on Wednesday, the speaker of the assembly assumed there had been “a delay” and “the result of the vote was to reject the proposal”, explaining that the failure to “considering that the absolute majority of the votes would be calculated in proportion to the votes cast (against and in favour) which totaled 36 and not in relation to the universe of the 75 members of the Lisbon City Council in effectiveness of functions , as the law stipulates”.
Per municipality, the votes against were from Chega, PEV, BE, Livre and PAN, the abstentions were from PS, PCP, Iniciativa Liberal (IL) and Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), and the votes in ten in favor of the five parties that formed the “Novos Tempos” coalition, namely PSD, CDS-PP, MPT, PPM and Aliança and 13 deputies from the PS.
Among the 75 municipal deputies who are part of this consultative body of the City of Lisbon, 27 have been elected from the right-wing coalition “Novos Tempos” – PSD (17), CDS-PP (seven), MPT (one), PPM (one) and Aliança (one) -, 27 from the PS, five from the PCP, four from the BE, three from the Liberal Initiative (IL), three from Chega, two from the PEV, one from the PAN, one from Livre and two independent of the Cidadãos por Lisboa political movement (elected by the PS/Livre coalition).
It concerns “the contracting of a medium and long-term loan, for an amount of EUR 15.3 million, from Caixa Geral de Depósitos” to ensure the financing of WYD investments, namely for the work of the Tagus Park (38 hectares), the pedestrian cycle bridge over the Trancão River (to be built by the municipal company EMEL), the car park and the podium, interventions that are expected to remain for the future of the city.
According to the proposal, the loans “may not exceed the useful life of the respective investment, nor exceed the period of 20 years, after obtaining from the promoters of the interventions that they have a useful life of 20 years”.
WYD, considered the largest event of the Catholic Church, will take place this year in Lisbon, between August 1 and August 6, with an expected attendance of about 1.5 million people, in the presence of Pope Francis.
Source: DN
