The leader of the Liberal Initiative manifested this Friday, concerned about lack of information on mobility, health and safety plans for World Youth Day (WYD)whereas they should already be known and assign responsibilities to the government.
Speaking to Lusa after a visit to the WYD site in Lisbon, Rui Rocha “expressed his concern about the lack of information or even, in some cases, the lack of a plan regarding mobility, health and safety plans” .
“In some cases something is known, not everything is known. In other cases nothing is known,” he said.
Giving the concrete example of the mobility plan, the Liberal leader said it was initially expected to be unveiled in February, then in March, and now the new date scheduled is July 15, which he considered “apparently late”.
“We are talking about a lot of people, 1.5 million people. It is very, very late for the municipalities to be able to implement their strategies later on,” he stressed..
Referring also to the health plan, the IL leader warned of the impact WYD could have on the National Health System (SNS), which is currently “under great strain, even at cruising speed”.
“It is clearly concerning all the additional pressure that a human mass of this size will put on the health system in this region,” he stressed.
Rui Rocha said he hoped WYD “goes well”, which would be “obviously very important for Portugal”, but reiterated that it was also “very important” that these plans were already known, “so that all necessary organization can be done later”.
“We would certainly be much calmer if we were aware of these plans, if we could evaluate them and if we could see them supplemented later by the actions of the municipalities required to implement them”he said.
Asked if he attributes this lack of planning to sloppiness on the part of the government, Rui Rocha replied that “there are a series of signs over time that show that there is, in fact, this sloppiness, this lack of assertiveness in management, in the planning”. .
“In some cases possibly from the government itself – which has an important responsibility in this -, in some cases possibly from one of the municipalities involved,” he underlined.
However, Rui Rocha reiterated that “it is becoming too late to announce these fundamental plans”.
“And that part is clearly the government’s responsibility,” he added.
In these statements to Lusa, Rui Rocha also addressed budgetary issues related to the organization of WYD and recalled that “the initial estimate was around 50 million for both the national government and the municipalities”, and now that estimate is already 80 million.
“Therefore, we are already slipping and we also don’t know what the estimate of the return is. I’m not saying that this return does not exist, but there is no information about the return that this WYD may have,” he said.
Lisbon was the city chosen by Pope Francis for this year’s edition of World Youth Day, which will take place between August 1 and August 6, with the main ceremonies in Parque Tejo, north of Parque das Nações, on the banks of the Tagus, on land in the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures.
Source: DN
