Montenegro promises greater domestic political representation and global toll plan

This Monday, the AD leader committed to increasing the political representation of the hinterland, including based on territory rather than just population, and through a global toll plan that positively discriminates against low-density areas.

Towards the end of the rally in Chavez (Vila Real district), Luis Montenegro spoke to journalists for about 15 minutes about the importance of increasing the population in the most depopulated areas, such as the areas of Vila Real and Bragança, where the advertising campaign will take place this Monday.

“There is a sense of great frustration that generation after generation fewer and fewer people can have a viable life project here. Our plan is a plan to try to revitalize these areas economically through activities that can be more competitive,” he said.

When asked whether he intended to reform the electoral system, Montenegro had to ask party youth members to sing more quietly so that they could be heard by the media.

“We presented in the last legislative body, in our draft constitutional revision, the inclusion in the Constitution of a norm allowing the opening of representation not only by population, but also by territory. In other words, the electoral system may allow for a law in which the representation of constituencies with fewer people can be compensated by the territorial dimension of the constituencies themselves,” he said, expressing his intention to renew the proposal “as soon as the process of constitutional revision begins.”

Otherwise, he warned, “at any moment there will be constituencies that simply don’t have representation,” which would be a “huge failure.”

Answering a question about his position regarding road tolls in the interior of the country, which the PS promises to abolish, Montenegro once again recalled that the PSD presented a proposal in parliament to reduce them by 50%, but it was not implemented by the government.

“I think that as the concessions come to an end, a decision will be made in the near future to extend or launch new concession competitions, which is what I want: to launch new competitions. under which the financing conditions can be renegotiated,” he said.

The SDP leader believes that “there are conditions to have a general plan for paying tolls.”

“I understand what is said in less densely populated areas in terms of population, but I also think a lot about the residents of Olivais, Loures, Sintra, Maia, Vila do Conde, Matosinhos, who are also surrounded by toll roads at the door of Greater Lisbon and Greater Porto , which also deserve, from the point of view of government authorities, a different look,” he said.

At the start of the Chavez rally, where he gave out kisses, took photographs and was even lifted on his shoulders, the former Montenegrin combatant demanded that Montenegro provide an IRS reduction to those who fought in the war, but the PSD leader did not commit to this measure when he later journalists questioned.

“No, as you noticed, I did not give a specific answer to this. Now, whatever help we can provide so that people can cope with the traumas that come from this life, we are naturally obliged to do this, in the health care system, perhaps with some compensation for the suffering that people have endured,” he assured He.

When asked whether he would commit to electrifying the Douro line if he were elected prime minister in the early legislative elections on March 10, Montenegro responded in the affirmative.

“Without a doubt, the electrification of the Douro line should have already been completed, it has been consistently delayed by those who decided to travel on this train today,” he said, alluding critically to his political opponent, the PS secretary general. , Pedro Nuno Santos.

In this regard, the PSD leader said that in his youth he traveled along this line many times: “It took ten hours from Espinho to Braganza, you see, I know the Douro line like no one else,” he said.

In Chavez, Montenegro also expressed confidence that the AD will return the third deputy in Vila Real and the second Braganza, lost in 2022.