Montenegro stops ANMP: regionalization does not advance

Association defended that regionalization is fundamental. The following day, the Prime Minister rejected the idea.

There are very different versions of the regionalization, between Luis Montenegro and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP).

On Saturday, the association argued that the regionalization is fundamental to end an “unequal and unbalanced” countrymaking national interests compatible with those of the various territories.

“The ANMP is aware of the difficulty of the regionalization process, but the years that have passed since the April Revolution allow us to conclude that, without the creation of administrative regions, we will remain an unequal and unbalanced country. These imbalances will only be overcome with public policies appropriate to the different territories”, wrote the mayors in the document Autonomy and Decentralization, presented at the XXVII Congress of the ANMP.

ANMP considers that a national regional development policy “must be articulated with all agents in the territoryso that, in decision-making processes, the interests of the country with the diverse interests of its various territories and regions”.

“Only administrative regions will be able to play this role, effectively and efficiently fulfilling the indispensable articulation of transversal policies”, argue the municipalities.

ANMP therefore appealed “to the compliance with the constitutional textcreating administrative regions” to provide “more consistent public policies”, favor “the competitive capacity of territories”, enhance “the creation of polarizing centers of growth”.

The administrative regions will also allow “political dialectic processes”, creating “additional factors of progress and development”, according to the mayors.

For the ANMP, administrative regions are essential for territorial reorganization and for “an effective administrative reform”, allowing “territorial policies closer to citizens and the deepening of administrative decentralization”.

“Administrative decentralization […] it can and should be carried out for administrative regions in those situations in which the exercise of powers requires a larger territorial dimension, in this case, a regional dimension”, he indicated.

The authorities consider that the municipal scale is often insufficient “to provide consistency to some of the public policies that require a larger territorial structure”.

Montenegro is in no hurry

The following day, the Prime Minister stated that the regionalization will not be addressed in this legislaturebecause “the time is inadequate and inopportune” and it is necessary to “deepen the ongoing decentralization”.

“This government, in this legislature, considers that it is necessary to deepen the decentralization in force. It needs to be evaluated, it needs to be taken even further in its inter-municipal dimension. But this will not be the legislature where regionalization will be addressed”, said Luís Montenegro, precisely at the ANMP Congress.

The Prime Minister says there is “inadequate time for this progress”. “A while inopportune same. The ongoing decentralization process must be deepened in the spirit of municipalism and the executive capacity of municipalities”, he argued.

Montenegro wanted to leave this option “very clear”, so that there are no misunderstandings in the relationship with local authorities “and we are not deceiving each other.

“A partnership relationship must be embodied in a relationship of loyalty and frontality. We can’t be partners if we don’t have the courage to tell each other what we think”, he justified.

“Respect”

The new president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities has already reacted. Pedro Pimpão says that mayors “have to respect”, as it is “the position of the Prime Minister”.

Even so, Luís Montenegro’s announcement “does not inhibit” the ANMP “understanding that the fact that Portugal is a very centralized country means that all stabilization mechanisms must be taken into account and that regionalization must be discussed in the country”.

Stances on regionalization “do not match” between the ANMP and the prime minister, reinforced Pimpão.

Sónia Sanfona, president of the Association of Socialist Mayors, considers that “the announcement of the death of regionalization is clearly exaggerated”.

Socialists will “continue to put the issue on the agenda and demonstrate with the everyday reality that it is extremely important that regionalization happens so that the entire process of decentralization and deconcentration of the State works”.