José Sena Goulão / Lusa
The president of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, Rosário Farmhouse
Carlos Moedas says that the TC’s lead to the AL referendum in Lisbon is a “defeat for the radical left supported by the PS — the same people who expelled Lisbon residents from the city in the last 14 years”. The socialists say that Moedas is largely responsible, IL asks for Rosário Farmhouse’s resignation.
The Mayor of Lisbon considered this Saturday that the Constitutional Court’s decision to make it impossible to hold a local referendum on local accommodation in the city “It’s a big defeat for the radical left supported by the PS”.
In a written statement sent to the Lusa agency, Carlos Moedas highlighted the work of the current municipal executive, led by PSD, in regulating AL in the city of Lisbon, “with moderation and in a balanced waywhich protects Lisbon residents”, and criticized the previous PS management.
At issue is the TC’s decision on Local Accommodation, which was decided by the Lisbon Municipal Assembly in December, following a petition from the Housing Referendum Movement.
The Constitutional Court “legality was not verified” of the initiative, due to the absence of “effective control of signatures”due to the lack of an opinion from the President of the City Council, and because the questions asked are “unequivocally inconsistent with the legal framework”.
For the Mayor of Lisbon, this is a defeat for “the same as expelled Cariocas from the city in the last 14 years”, a period during which Local Accommodation went from 500 units in 2011 to 18 thousand in 2018”.
“They are those who now criticize the current executive for regulating the market, with clear rules, protecting areas of the cityand that they no longer need AL, but giving freedom and opportunities for other areas and more families to grow and make a living from this business as well”, he declared.
Coins highlighted the role of its executive in supervising the sectorre highlighted that 250 licenses have been canceled in the last three years.
“Today in Lisbon there cannot be AL from 2.5 units for every 100 housing units. It is a relative and then absolute barrier starting at 5%. This gives assurance to all parishes that if they have more than 5% AL in the parish, they will no longer have AL”, he explained.
Furthermore, Moedas points out, “there is a single absolute containment areaon the municipal scale, when there is an index “equal to or greater than 5%”, which currently applies because the city, as a whole, records an index of 7.2%”.
“As long as we are not below that 5% or those 5%, there is no more AL. At this moment, what is in effect is a suspension and, therefore, there is no more AL in Lisbon”, reinforced the municipality.
On December 3, the Municipal Assembly approved the conversion of a popular initiative into a local referendum on AL, with votes in favor of PS, BE, EPI, PAN, Book, votes against PSD, CDS-PP, IL, PPM, Aliança, Chegaand abstentions from PCP and MPT.
To be considered, the popular initiative must be proposed to the deliberative assembly for a minimum of 5,000 or 8% of voting citizens registered in the respective area, whichever is smaller.
The following week, the president of the AML, Rosário Farmhouse (PS), submitted to the Constitutional Court the deliberation regarding the holding of the referendum by popular initiative, with the subscription lists of subscribing citizenswhich included two lotspresented at different times.
The second of these batches will have been presented to “cure any defects” of the first batch of signatures, which contained only 4,863 voters registered in the electoral register in the area of the municipality of Lisbon.
The referendum proposed by MRH included two questions, which the Constitutional Court considered “unequivocally inconsistent with the legal framework”:
- Agrees to amend the Municipal Local Accommodation Regulation in the sense that the Lisbon City Council, within 180 days, order cancellation of local accommodation registered in properties intended for housing?
- You agree to change the Municipal Local Accommodation Regulation so that local accommodation is no longer allowed in properties intended for housing?
Farmhouse “should reflect” continuity
This Saturday, the PSD / Lisbon accused the president of the Municipal Assembly, the socialist Rosario Farmhouseof “trampling legislation and regulations” and managing the position based on a “political agenda”arguing that it should reflect on its continuity.
“The president of the Municipal Assembly has destroyed the trust capital of Lisbon residents in AML and, therefore, must reflect on whether it provides a good service to the city”, stated the president of the municipal structure and leader of the social democratic bench in the AML, Louis Newtonin a written statement sent to the Lusa agency.
“There are rare moments when an AML president has the opportunity to offer a vision of confidence and rigor. In this case, the president has trample the legislation and regulations of the municipal assembly in favor of a political agenda”, declared Luís Newton.
In the statement, the PSD/Lisbon says that tall the arguments presented by the Constitutional judges as the basis for their decision had already been presented, in due time, by the PSD municipal bench, which even considered presenting a precautionary measure.
“Although the evident validity of the arguments presented proves the non-existence of conditions for the acceptance of the referendum request, understood the president of the AML follow up on it, putting it to the vote and sending it to the STF”, recalls the note.
“This attitude is one of many which have consistently revealed, on the part of the aforementioned president, management of the position based not on compliance with municipal regulations and legislation, but in defense of an ideological agenda”, criticizes a PSD.
For these reasons, the PSD municipal bench understands that the president of the AML must “seriously analyze” the conditions he has to continue in officedespite the performance of this position ending with the next municipal elections, which should take place this year, “unless she is elected again“.
“If you choose to resignwe believe that municipal management in Lisbon will win”, say the Social Democrats.
IL defends dismissal
While the PSD/Lisbon suggests that Rosário Farmhouse should consider whether he maintains the conditions to continue in office, the Liberal Initiative goes further and defends the resignation of the president of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly.
For liberals, the TC’s lead “It’s a defeat for AMLwho gave in to populism” and is currently the president of the AML “no longer meets the conditions to continue in office,” he said. Angelique Da TeresaIL municipal deputy, in a statement.
“If he does not resign, IL is considering presenting a motion of censure”, adds the municipal deputy, who considers that the TC’s decision “confirms the irregularities highlighted by the Liberal Initiative”.
The Liberal Initiative remembers that “I had already alerted the AML for the need to have a mandatory opinion from the President of the Chamber, which was not requested” and that “that’s why not included in the process which went to the Constitutional Court”.
TC’s lead comes now “confirm serious irregularities in the administrative procedure”, conclude the liberals.
Things didn’t go well
The president of the Lisbon council of Santa Maria Maior, Miguel Coelho (PS), lamented this Saturday that the referendum on local accommodation in Lisbon had been invalidated by the Constitutional Court and argued that the initiative should have been presented by the socialists.
“I’m sorry that this referendum won’t take place. I’ve been asking and I’ve been suggesting for at least a couple of years that the Socialist Party takes this initiative to promote a referendum on local accommodation”, stated Miguel Coelho, speaking to the Lusa agency.
The PS “didn’t do it, preferred to integrate or associate with this movement of activists and, Apparently, things didn’t go well”, notes the mayor of Santa Maria Maior, a parish in the historic center of Lisbon and one of the territories most affected by local accommodation.
“I am sorry that the referendum was not validated, because a great opportunity to ask Lisbon residents for their opinion about something that I consider is taking away the right to housing for many people”, he stated.
The socialist, who ends his last term as president of the Junta this year, reinforced the need to hold the referendum, whose final outcome he does not know, but which would serve to “remove doubts” about the position of people living in Lisbon, having into account “liberalization” of this economic activity by the current Government and “the closing of an eye” of the camera.
For Miguel Coelho, the president of the municipality, Carlos Moedas, “is one of those largely responsible for the proliferation of local accommodation in the city”.
Moedas is responsible, says PS
This Sunday, PS/Lisbon accused Carlos Moedas and the Government of defrauding Lisbon residents looking for housing in the capital by “support deregulation of local accommodation”.
“The only ones defeated by deregulation of local accommodation are Lisbon residents who are looking for a house they can afford”, says the socialist councilor at the Lisbon City Council Ines Drummond.
Speaking to Lusa, the socialist councilor commented on the TC’s decision to make the referendum unfeasible and Carlos Moedas’ statements. “For the PS, Currencies and Montenegro defeated and defrauded the people of Lisbonespecially young people looking for houses they can afford”, he stated.
The socialist mayor highlighted that the PS supports the movement’s initiative who decided to propose this referendum and advised them, given this lead from the TC, to correct and improve the proposal.
“It is a concern that the PS has identified for several years. A concern about the growth of vacation rentals at a time of serious crisis in access to housing. The PS stagnated from very early on and three years ago”, he highlighted.
