BE wants CGD to work with state bank and reduce interest rates on home loans

BE wants the Caixa Geral de Depósitos to “act like a state bank” and lower interest rates on housing loans, one of the proposals in the electoral program in response to “the crises resulting from the legacy of the PS’s absolute majority.”

For more than an hour, in front of many of the most prominent faces of the BE, the leader of the bloc, Mariana Mortagua, presented this Saturday afternoon the electoral program with which the party will go to the early legislative elections on March 10. “a government program that guarantees a good life for everyone who lives in Portugal” and who intends to “do what has never been done.”

According to Mariana Mortagua, in addition to responding to the country’s structural problems, BE wants to present solutions to what it calls “the legacy of the vast majority of the PS”, which it blames for exacerbating many crises, from wages to the economic model running through public services, with focusing on education, health and housing.

“We want to lower housing interest rates. We know that is the biggest bottleneck, the biggest effort and the biggest fear for those with a mortgage,” he said.

According to the BE leader, Caixa Geral de Depósitos “has one of the best capital adequacy ratios in the European Union” and “has profits as if it were a private bank, since it applied private bank interest rates as if it were not a state bank ” bank”.

“We propose that Caixa act as a state bank, lower its interest rates, lower the prices charged for new and existing loans and be able to accommodate this reduction,” he proposed.

Thanks to this cut, BE estimates that “either customers of the remaining banks are transferring their loans to Caixa, or the remaining banks are lowering the price of mortgages,” resulting in “less astronomical profits for the banks and more strain” on people.

To respond to this crisis, BE insists on the need to reduce rents and therefore proposes “rent ceilings differentiated by area and typology,” rent stability and limits on rent increases based on purchasing power.

A ban on the sale of houses to non-residents (with exceptions), restrictions on local occupancy, a 25% quota on cost-controlled housing in all new buildings and the immediate end of tax breaks for speculators and non-permanent residents. other measures presented.

Regarding the social media crisis, with more users without a family doctor, more delays and more waiting, Mortagua argues that PS is “right” when he says he is spending more money on healthcare, the problem is that this money is “coming through the door on the SNA and goes a different way to the private sector.”

According to the blocker, “there is no other way” to solve this problem except to “preserve and increase the number of professionals”, give them “a career, salary and life prospects”, “seriously” revive the ideas of an exclusivity regime and increase salaries for three positions until 2025 .

“We want to ensure that the abortion law is respected,” he said.

Regarding the crisis in public schools, Mariana Mortagua repeated the same health formula and stated that the solution is to “ensure the presence of professionals in the school”, committing to the restoration of the working hours of all teachers, since this is a discussion that has been ongoing “ too long”.

BE also wants the program to bring together all at-risk teachers and create 125,000 new vacancies to create a community network of kindergartens.

One of the blockers’ slogans is again “the fight against corruption and economic crime,” they once again promise “zero tolerance for offshore companies” and argue that it is necessary to criminalize their use.

Mariana Mortagua repeated a proposal to criminalize illicit enrichment, the “usual BE proposal,” and announced her intention to review the golden visas she wants to scrap, as well as the Department of Defense.