Carneiro questions funds for post-PRR and accuses Government of insensitivity

O pS Secretary General today expressed doubts as to whether the funds provided in the State Budget for post-PRR projects and storm damage are sufficient, accusing the Government of revealing “insensitivity” to the problems faced by people.

In the margins of a visit to the October Fair in Vila Franca de Xira, José Luís Carneiro said that the party will examine in detail the budget proposal to see if the amounts entered are sufficient to respond to two of the conditions laid down by the PS to enable the document.

“What we will check is whether the financial resources provided are sufficient to carry out these investments. If they are not sufficient in the State budget, we want to know what other sources of funding are,” he said.

The socialist leader referred, on the one hand, to the completion of projects initially framed in the PRR and, on the other, to interventions aimed at compensating for the damage caused by the storms that affected several municipalities of the country.

According to José Luís Carneiro, there are still municipalities, businesses and families waiting for the promised support, considering that the government has an obligation to guarantee the necessary means to respond to these situations.

The statements appear hours after the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, has ensured in the fortnightly debate in Parliament that the executive plans for post-PRR investments and for the recovery of storm damage are “completely being implemented”.

The head of the government responded to an interrogation by the socialist leader on two of the four conditions indicated by the PS to enable the OE2027.

Despite reiterating that the PS does not intend to provoke a political crisis and that it will act with a sense of responsibility in assessing the budget, José Luís Carneiro again marked distances from the executive's options.

“ This is not the budget of the Socialist Party, it would never be our budget,” he said, defending that the Socialists would have set other priorities.

The Secretary-General of the PS also criticised what he considered the government's lack of response to the worsening cost of living and accused the executive of being away from the difficulties experienced by the population.

“ Unfortunately, we have an incompetent government that is very insensitive to people's problems. The government speaks as if nothing was going on,” he said.

The Secretary-General of the PS also accused the Government of aggravating the housing crisis and of “offending the youth” with changes to the rent law, stating that the PS remains committed to building a “National Housing Service”.

“ This proposal that this government has now put forward, with the support of liberals and Aquida, on the rent law, is a serious offense to younger people who are faced with increased difficulties to enter the rental market ", sustained.

The socialist leader argued that the PS has presented alternatives aimed at stimulating the rental market, guaranteeing “simultaneously security for owners and protection for tenants, especially for young people between the ages of 18 and 35” and for people covered by affordable rents.

Asked about the risk of growing social tension associated with the housing crisis, at a time when protests are announced in Portugal and other European countries, José Luís Carneiro replied that this scenario “can happen”.

The Secretary-General of the PS recalled that, about a year ago, he warned the Prime Minister of the need for urgent responses in territories affected by the lack of housing, particularly in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, considering that the Government ignored the socialist proposals.

According to the leader of the PS, the measures taken by the demand-side executive have contributed to the increase in prices, indicating that housing costs have increased by more than 28% in the last two years.

José Luís Carneiro also stated that more than 18% of young people currently live in shared homes, pointing out this data as a sign of the difficulty in accessing housing.