Housing Referendum Movement
More than 11 thousand people signed the petition now approved against local accommodation in properties intended for housing — a “movement that dared to activate, for the first time in history, a tool of direct democracy provided for in the Constitution”.
The one approved this Tuesday by the Lisbon City Council (CML) is “unprecedented moment” in Portuguese democracy.
The person who says this is the municipal deputy from the Left Bloc, Isabel Piresauthor of the report of the eventual commission created under the legal regime of the local referendum, cited by . And not without foundation: the proposal now goes to the Constitutional Court (TC) and, if approved, will be the first time that this instrument has been used in the country by popular initiativeexplains .
The representative of the Housing Referendum Movement (), the entity responsible for the document, Teresa Mamede, congratulated and thanked the deputies for having analyzed an initiative to more than 11 thousand people who signed the referendum proposalfor a “movement that dared to activate, for the first time in history, a direct democracy tool provided for in the Constitution“.
The TC will now have 25 days to validate the proposal. If it does so, it is then up to the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, to set the date for the popular consultation.
The referendum has 6600 valid signatures (even though it was signed by 11 thousand people), which respect registered voters in the capital and which exceed the number required by law (5 thousand).
It is intended, “by the force of citizens’ votes, revoke Local Accommodation licenses currently in force in properties intended for housing, returning the houses currently occupied by tourism to their social function: to be inhabited”, as the statement wrote.
“Our desire is for you to win the ‘yes’ so that the city’s houses are freed from the weight of tourism and it is possible to dream of a future in which neighborhoods are inhabited spaces, where, in neighborhoods, bonds of solidarity and community living are built”, said Teresa Mamede at CML.
“We know that the AL law recently changed by decree, but this change does not take regulatory powers away from the municipality, contrary to what the AL lobby has been saying. The proposal is alive, valid and must move forward”, he concludes.
There are still residents of Lisbon who disagree with the measure, as is the case of Ricardo Serrão, who said in an interview with DN that local accommodation has been “a scapegoat, for more than 10 years, for all problems related to housing”.
In the CML, there were also disagreements. On the part of the CDS, for example, Martim Borges Freitas questioned the “conflict between the right to housing and economic freedom”. The PSD municipal deputy, Ana Mateussays that “only a change in the law can accommodate the will of the representatives but not the referendum”.
Even so, argues the MRH representative, this form of direct political intervention by citizens is fair: “it doesn’t matter whether you consider the AL good or bad, what matters is democracy”.
