PS leader criticizes lack of answers for “life and housing cost”

O pS leader today criticized in Coimbra the lack of answers from the Prime Minister and the Government to the needs of the Portuguese regarding the cost of living and emergency in the housing sector.

“The Prime Minister and the various members of the Government, who have direct and indirect responsibilities in responding to the cost of living and housing, must explain to the country why they delay in responding adequately to the needs related to the cost of living, but also how they intend to respond to housing”, said José Luís Carneiro.

The Secretary-General of the PS spoke to journalists at the entrance to a meeting with socialist militants from Coimbra on the State Budget for 2027.

At the time, the socialist leader assured that the party will present measures to meet the cost of living of families, companies and institutions, but seeking to ensure the sustainability of public finances.

José Luís Carneiro stressed that the socialists will look for, “with each proposal presented, show where they can get the resources to finance these proposals”.

About the emergency the country lives in, the leader of the PS insisted that the government should “put the new rental law in the drawer,” “because people have already realized that this is a law that will facilitate evictions.”.

“ At a time like this, when the country is not showing the ability to respond with the construction of new housing and the placing on the market of more housing, facilitating evictions is creating immense insecurity in the younger and in the families of the middle classes and also in the elderly ", he defended.

The leader revealed that, recently, in a housing offer at the Junta de Freguesia de Benfica in Lisbon, 6,000 people compete for 70 houses, of which 40% lived in a shared house with family, “but, more surprising, they live in houses shared with strange people”.

“ This shows how hard people are going through. Another indicator is that one in five young people live in shared homes, a number that increased by more than 18%,” he said.

The Secretary-General of the Socialists also rejected the responsibilities of previous PS governments in the housing and rental sector, stressing that they sought “to meet the Cristas law in the period of financial assistance (‘troika’).”.

“ It was a law that completely broke the market. We agree that we had to update the rents so that the owners can retain their assets, but what was done was to move from eight to eighty without any regulation, at a time when they went ahead with the ‘gold’ visas and the unusual resident status,” he said.

Stressing that he joined “the hunger with the desire to eat”, José Luís Carneiro called for the coming of “expulsive international funds that lodged in the cities” and argued that “it is necessary to guarantee conditions to regulate real estate speculation”.

On the other hand, he added, it is “I need to recognize that it was from 2018 that progressed with a law on housing in the country (Local Housing Strategy), which was contractualized with the municipalities.”.

The socialist leader also argued that, at this time “emergency”, it is necessary a new regulatory framework for municipalities to be able to respond quickly to housing licensing processes and the way in which soil is identified available for construction.