Works of the PRR for completion can push municipalities for debt, warns PS

“ Omunicipalities cannot be left behind. Whenever the municipalities are left behind, we are unprotecting local communities and people, because it is in the municipalities that we respond to the main needs ", warned.

At the entrance to a meeting with members of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), scheduled for the end of the morning at the headquarters of the institution in Coimbra, José Luís Carneiro stressed that it is in the municipalities that answers are given in areas such as health, housing, transport, mobility and education.

“ Tomorrow [Saturday] we will have a meeting [National Municipal Convention of the PS] with more than a thousand mayors of parishes, municipalities, municipal assemblies and municipal councils, where we will make very clear commitments. That is, what I will do as Prime Minister to value local democratic power”, he added.

Among the issues that the PS intends to assume as a political commitment for the future are a new Local Finance Law and the appreciation of the status of local elected and the review of the Autárquical Electoral Law.

“ These are matters of this nature that we will be dealing with, but the key message that I wanted to convey to the President of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities [Pedro Pimpão] is that he has the Socialist Party's elected representatives and the Secretary-General of the PS to carry out his mission well. And to carry out its mission well, is to ensure in the Assembly of the Republic, with the Government, that the Government respects the municipalities and respects their mayors”, he said.

José Luís Carneiro also referred to the replacement of the Inspection General of Local Authorities (IGAL), a claim of the municipalities with which he agrees “totally”, because he considers it a guarantee of institutional protection for the mayors.

The journalists also mentioned the difficulties faced by the municipalities in the execution of works foreseen under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), but that were not completed until August 31.

“ This is a subject that I have already put to the Prime Minister, which is how we will guarantee the financing of the works that were planned under the RRP, how they will be financed in the future and with what contribution rates. The PRR financed 100% and now the municipalities with 60% funding are unable to guarantee the remaining 40%, unless they resort to debt”, he warned.

In its view, the next state budget should also meet the needs of storms in relation to support for families, businesses and local authorities.

Asked about the conditions presented by the PS to negotiate the State Budget, the socialist Secretary-General replied that today he intended to focus on the objective of valuing the municipalities, parishes and mayors of the country.

“ Mayors are people with ambition for the future of their communities, but they need a central administration to accompany them in this ambition. And that is what I am assuming for the future of Portugal”, he concluded.