The leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, considered the statements of the president of the IHRU, Benjamin Pereira, unhappy, but did not ask for his resignation, referring the decision to the Prime Minister.
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23/10/2026
by
Lusa
O leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro today referred to the Prime Minister a possible resignation of the president of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), recognizing, however, that Benjamin Pereira's statements were unhappy.
“ He himself portrayed himself by realizing that they were unfortunate words. We had already reached that sentence concerning the selfishness of young people from the responsibility of the Prime Minister. We now have the head of the IHRU, who instead of focusing on what needs to be concentrated, comes to consider that the younger people have to make sacrifices”, criticised the socialist leader in statements at the entrance to the plenary for clarification on the State Budget for 2027, which took place tonight in Ermesinde, municipality of Valongo,
In a session on the proposal of the Municipal Master Plan of Gaia, on Thursday, the president of the IHRU said he did not know if the current society is available for the sacrifice level of the previous one, recalling that the grandparents and the father emigrated to have a home.
On the same day, and in an interview with Jornal Nacional da TVI, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, considered these statements unhappy and revealed having already asked for explanations.
On the other hand, Benjamin Pereira admitted that the expressions he used about the sacrifice capacity of young people were unhappy, clarifying that he did not intend to devalue the difficulties in housing or suggest emigration.
The CFP, the Free and the PAN today requested the parliamentary hearing of the President of the IHRU, considering that their statements were unacceptable and unhappy, while BE insisted that Benjamin Pereira should resign.
Alerting that “young people already make many sacrifices, because they are living until later in their parents’ home, because they cannot have greater autonomy of life and autonomy to carry out their life projects”, the deputy resorted to the figures released today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) to highlight that “in the second quarter of this year, the increase in housing has exceeded 18%, which means that since this government is in office, there has been an increase in the cost of housing more than 41%”.
“ In addition, it was this government that brought the concept of moderate income of EUR 2,300, which caused an acceleration of rent costs by 34% in the country. More serious, there was an 18% increase in the number of young people who are living in shared homes today, that is, one in five young people is living in shared homes”, continued José Luís Carneiro.
The leader guaranteed the commitment to “do everything” to find solutions, proposals, to respond, with “confidence, in the future, in the defense of the National Accessible Housing Service, in the guarantee of conditions for the lease, so that the young people can enter the lease, so that the families of the middle classes can enter the lease, so that the owners and tenants have confidence in the proposal” that the PS presented.
“In the conversation we had a few days ago with our coordinator of the [Líusa Salgueiro] program, with the Portuguese Association of Banks and with the National Association of Insurance Companies, we were told that they were available to enable and support this proposal, because they considered this proposal the only proposal that balances the will of the owners with the safety of tenants,” he revealed.