IL proposes in its election program the introduction of a €480 child care check so that families can choose between the public, social or private sector, as well as the immediate abolition of the More Housing package.
These measures were announced by IL President Rui Rocha at the presentation of the party’s election program in Lisbon.
“One of the measures in our election program is the ‘Child Care Review’. (…) Without additional costs, we will take the measure “more care for children” and say: “from now on there will be a child care check, costing 480 euros, and it is the Portuguese who decide which kindergarten will be the best for their children: a private kindergarten, social or state,” he noted.
The IL leader considered the lack of places in kindergartens today to be a “very serious problem,” accusing the PS of carrying out “propaganda on this issue” and believing that it should “decide where Portuguese families place their children.”
“What PS is doing is very simple: you can only choose a private kindergarten, even if it is ten meters from your home, if there are no vacancies in the social sector or in several public kindergartens in your area. influence,” he criticized, accusing the Socialists and their general secretary Pedro Nuno Santos of wanting to “control the lives of the Portuguese.”
In education, Rui Rocha also said the party also wants to see “emergency recovery plans with serious targets, indicators and funding” and for end-of-cycle assessments to be reintroduced.
“We want to know how things are in advance so we can adjust the shot when necessary. This is how education is done in Portugal,” he defended.
Rui Rocha also assured that if he is the government, the first measure he will take will be the cancellation of the “More Housing” package, but not because of a “refusal instinct”, but because he believes that “the reason for the continued Growth” housing prices in Portugal are associated precisely with the implementation of the program, since in the rest of Europe they have already begun to decline.
“Let me tell you that PS has done everything wrong in terms of housing. Now imagine what Pedro Nuno Santos is like when his partner Mariana Mortagua is on public duty. They are destroying the housing market that will remain in a few months,” he said.
In this area, IL once again insisted on measures that had already been presented by the party, such as the elimination of the BMI, the reduction of construction VAT to 6% or the creation of building codes to “group and rationalize” thousands of disparate, municipal, national standards” according to licensing.
Further emphasizing that there are “thousands of empty, abandoned properties” in the state, Rui Rocha said IL also wants to ensure that these properties “are in the service of the Portuguese and not abandoned, as is now the case with PS.”
“The state relics will serve the Portuguese and be available to private individuals who want to return them and put them on the market, for example in terms of available income,” he said.
In his speech, in which he listed the party’s proposals on several fronts, Rui Rocha also presented measures to ensure justice, believing that “the fight against corruption is not carried out by shouting or loud talk” and measures must be taken to simplify processes and put an end to bureaucracy.
Among these measures, Rui Rocha, in particular, highlighted the fact that proceedings in the administrative court in the first instance “take an average of 850 days,” promising to reduce this average time to “less than a year.”
On economics, the IL leader once again defended party flags such as the creation of a flat IRS rate of 15% or a base IRS rate of 12%, accusing Pedro Nuno Santos of suggesting that the Portuguese economy will not grow above 2% in the next four years. and states that the IRS change “is not a priority.”
“Pedro Nuno Santos’ message to young Portuguese people is clear: they can succeed in life, but to do so they will have to leave Portugal. For young Portuguese, IL’s message is equally clear: they can succeed in life, but with us they can do it here in Portugal,” he said.
The IL leader also guaranteed that his party would not withdraw “not a penny of pensions currently paid” and proposed a plan for a railway that would connect all county capitals and ensure that none were more than two hours away from Porto or Lisbon.
In this speech, Rui Rocha also justified IL’s decision not to join the electoral coalition with the PSD, emphasizing that the measures presented show that the party was right.
“There is no one in Portugal who has the courage to present a program of this kind,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

I’m Sandra Hansen, a news website Author and Reporter for 24 News Reporters. I have over 7 years of experience in the journalism field, with an extensive background in politics and political science. My passion is to tell stories that are important to people around the globe and to engage readers with compelling content.