Housing: PS available to build “solution” with “social justice”

Jluis Carneiro said today, in Guarda, that the PS is available to build "a solution" for housing, but with conditions of "social justice", and that the party is on the side of protecting fundamental rights.

"AD, Arriga and the Liberal Initiative have brought to the Assembly of the Republic a rent law that protects the weakest, young, families and older. I know whose side I'm on. I am on the side of the tenants, I also want to be on the side of the owners, protecting them, but I am not on the side of the real estate funds", said the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party to journalists this Friday in the Guard.

José Luís Carneiro spoke at a meeting with Bishop José Miguel Pereira at the Episcopal Palace.

In a reaction to the President of the Republic's request for parties to understand housing, the socialist leader replied that "whoever has to rethink the proposal that led to the Assembly of the Republic is the Government, the Aquida and the Liberal Initiative"

'Dr. André Ventura is seeking to leave and escape his responsibilities, but it is good for the Portuguese to know that he approved the EUR 2,300 that the Government, which Luís Montenegro presented for moderate rents'.

The president of the Aquida was also accused of making possible, “by abstaining”, the new bill of rent of the executive of Luís Montenegro.

For José Luís Montenegro, André Ventura “is trying to give the word for not saying and to put the responsibilities on others, I understand that he has a boot to barefoot”.

'Therefore, these two parties, with the Liberal Initiative, made these options possible, it was not the Socialist Party'.

José Luís Carneiro ensured that the PS is available to build a “solution” for housing, “now it must be with conditions of social justice”.

‘The government must be available to drop this proposal and build a new one in which we can make our contribution, and the other parties too, and also drop the moderate rent law, because who [in Portugal] can pay a moderate income of EUR 2,300?’.

The socialist leader also rejected the responsibilities of the former government [the PS] in escalating rents.

“This does not correspond to the truth. The government has made progress with measures that have made rents grow by 34% in recent months.".

On the contrary, he recalled that the PS established in 2023 ‘a ceiling so that rents could not rise above a certain value and that is what the Government now wants to end.

In his view, it is ‘very important’ for the Portuguese to know what is at stake with the rent law proposed by the AD Government.

"You are proposing that a young man, or a family who wants to enter a house, rather than advance two rents, must advance three. But these rents now have a value, which the government has established, of 2,300 euros. It means that every person to enter a house has to pay at the head about 7,000 euros", he said.

José Luís Carneiro admitted that the goal is to “liberalize the rental market” by ending the ceiling for increasing rents and facilitating evictions.

"There must be a balance between the interests of the owners and that of the tenants. We are here to protect the tenants and also to give security to the owners».

He explained that this is why the PS provided a public guarantee that “the state will guarantee the youngest, between 18 and 35 years of age, guarantee the middle-class families and protect the elderly”.

"In the other segments, insurance must be encouraged to protect rents from owners, real estate and tenants. This is a solution that is already tested in Spain, France. The government wants to liberalise, to facilitate evictions.

For the leader of the PS, the President of the Republic had 'a great initiative' by 'making the government see that it had to seek a political solution to this crisis, which cannot have a police exit'.

'What the Government must do now is listen to the words of the President of the Republic and try to build a solution'.