PS in Lisbon accuses PSD/CDS-PP leadership of “stigmatizing” social areas

The PS in Lisbon’s municipal assembly on Tuesday criticized the PSD/CDS-PP leadership’s housing policy and the “stigma” that social neighborhoods are marked by crime and drugs, an allegation denied by Social Democratic councillor, Filipa Roseta.

“We want a city not with social quarters, but with municipal housing. We understand that housing is a model of social inclusion, which is opposed to a city divided into zones of the rich, the poor and the affluent. We want a plural city, but that this plurality is not divided by territory,” said PS municipal deputy Duarte Marsal.

In the debate on political declarations in the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, the PS focused on intervening in the current housing crisis, which has increased the prices of buying and renting housing, criticizing the position of the PSD/CDS-PP leadership in the chamber, under the presidency of the social democrat Carlos Moedas, who rules without an absolute majority, which is “based on the stigmatization of social areas marked by crime and drugs”.

Duarte Marsal recalled the recent statements made by Councilor for Housing Filipa Roseta (PSD) in which he said that “all construction work in Lisbon will be in social areas, that there will be no new construction in places other than the degraded neighborhoods of the city, and mentioned that some were cancer of the city, preferring to build in places marked by crime and drugs, like Beato, rather than like Restelo.

“We do not recognize class partitions in the right to the city. We do not recognize a first-class city and a second-class city. a city where one can say “I live in Quinta do Loureiro” as easily as saying “I live in Campo Grande or I live in Parque das Nações”.

The MP also accused the leadership of the SDP/ZDS-PP of not wanting to build for the middle class, as well as not wanting to regulate the housing issue, since it “did not make a single proposal to the government” under the “More Housing” program.

The current chief “didn’t create new programs, he just reworked” PS initiatives, he said, ironically that “imitation is the sincerest form of praise.”

“New times [coligação PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança] believe in a society with ghetto and unequal […]. The priority of the residential complex is not investors, but people in need of housing, ”he stressed.

In response, SDP MP Carlos Reis lamented the lack of self-criticism from the PS, recalling that the Socialists have been running the country for almost eight years and have been in the city for 14 years, “an average of 17 houses a year.” became available in the last decade in Lisbon.

“Over the past 14 years, the housing policy in the city of Lisbon has been non-existent, non-existent, implemented by PS, on the one hand, in the 17 houses that I have built in the last 10 years, and on the other hand, in the vision that it supports today” , confirmed Francisco Camacho of CDS-PP.

Responding to the intervention of the PS, the housing adviser emphasized that “the last decade has indeed been the worst in a century because there has not really been investment, and this is the legacy of the PS, not only in the government, but also in the House.”

In terms of investment in municipal areas, Filipa Roseta called “bullshit” the idea that the council would only invest in the districts, but stressed the need to regenerate them, which is why they were included in the Local Housing Strategy in order to access funding from the Recovery Plan and sustainability (PRR), which is implemented jointly with the government.

“There are areas of the city that are in need of big investments that are far behind others,” the adviser warned, noting that 11 works are planned to rehabilitate municipal quarters this year.

Inviting MPs to “leave their offices and go see”, Philipa Roseta insisted on the goal of fighting poverty in the city.

“The reality goes beyond your fiction,” the mayor of PSD pointed out in response to PS, pointing out that the current chief executive, who took office in October 2021, has already delivered more than 1,100 keys, more than 1,000 families need to be supported. leases and more than 1,000 homes under construction, “contrary to what was the worst decade of the century.”

PS MP Duarte Marsal responded that “those who want to discuss the past are those who do not want to discuss the future”, and considered that there is “a lie” in the discussions about housing in Lisbon in the last decade, because “since the launch program “Affordable Income”, in 2020, before the end of the mandate of the PS, that is, from 2020 to 2021, under this program alone, IP handed over 548 houses in seven open auctions.

“The current leader has done in two years what the IU did in one year,” he stressed, noting that the previous leader left more than 300 houses ready for delivery.

“Facts are always more important than fiction,” the socialist stressed, criticizing the intervention of parties that never had a housing policy for the middle class: “We do not take moral lessons from those who never had one.”