The president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, accused the prime minister this Tuesday of “playing with Portugal and governance”, pointing as an example to the More housing program.
In Braga, on the sidelines of a meeting with the immigrant community in that city, Montenegro said that “not even the members of the Government” are capable of defending that program anymore.
“The Doctor. António Costa is playing with Portugal, playing with governance, trying out new policies. He discovered, seven years later, that he needed a Ministry of Housing”, he said.
According to Montenegro, “nobody in Portugal is capable of defending” the program that was presented last week: “Not even the members of the Government. I even think they are embarrassed about it, ”she said.
For the PSD leader, Costa does everything “on his knees”, “he is a repentista” and “makes changes from morning to afternoon in essential pillars of public policies”.
“It makes the proposals within the Government and only prepares itself on top of the knee to hold press conferences”, added Montenegro.
For the PSD leader, the prime minister “is disoriented”, because “in one fell swoop” he tells the country that he wants to reinforce the process of decentralization of competences and then, “in an essential public policy, such as housing, he does not even speak with the local authorities or with the governments of the autonomous regions”.
Montenegro said that the PSD is willing to offer the socialist executive its package of housing measures, “for the Government to legislate well”.
On Thursday, the prime minister presented a package of measures, estimated at 900 million euros, to respond to the housing crisis in Portugal with five axes: increasing the supply of properties used for housing purposes, simplifying licensing processes , increase the number of houses on the rental market, fight speculation and protect families.
Leasing of houses by the State to sublease them, payment of rents (by the State) in arrears after three months of non-compliance, exemption from IRS on capital gains from houses sold to the State and municipalities, the suspension of new licenses for local accommodation (with the exception of an area in the interior) and a line of 150 million euros for municipalities to carry out coercive works were some of the measures announced.
The Mais Habitação program was approved by the Council of Ministers and will be under public discussion for a month. The proposals will return to the Council of Ministers for final approval, on March 16, and then some measures will still have to go through the Assembly of the Republic.
TAP commission
The leader of the PSD devalued, for his part, the fact that the social-democratic deputy Patrícia Dantas is part of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into TAP, when she is being tried for fraud in obtaining a subsidy.
“This deputy has held office since the beginning of the legislature, this process was already running, she already had this procedural position and is doing what she already did before there was this commission of inquiry. Therefore, there is nothing new there”, said Montenegro.
Elected by the constituency of Madeira, Patrícia Dantas is being judged, in Braga, for fraud in obtaining a subsidy, in a mega-process centered on the now extinct Associação Industrial do Minho (AIMinho).
The case has 120 defendants and is related to an alleged fraud of around 10 million euros, involving European funds.
The former president of AIMinho António Marques is the main defendant, being accused of a crime of criminal association, 26 crimes of fraud in obtaining subsidy, 13 crimes of money laundering, 13 crimes of using a false document, two crimes of qualified fraud, 19 crimes of qualified tax fraud and one crime of document forgery.