“We have experienced unrest, the more tense relationship between the Metro do Porto administration and the mayor of Porto [Rui Moreira], in this case, and it is not up to me to meddle today, with local elections around the corner, in these issues. There needs to be some democratic hygiene. And so, in this democratic hygiene, I will not meddle,” he said to journalists in Maia today.
Miguel Pinto Luz spoke on the sidelines of signing a management agreement between Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and the Maia City Council for the management of a section of Estrada Nacional 14, which took place today at Maia City Hall (Porto district).
“The Government is unable to resolve the issue because we are in a pre-election process, and there was a mayor still in office [Rui Moreira] who took an absolutely radical public position, preventing a certain pursuit,” recalled the official.
On July 14, the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, stated that he would not “waste more time” on the metrobus and would leave that matter for the next administration.
Speaking for the Government, Miguel Pinto Luz said it is necessary “to make an assessment” and “to pause,” but “not pause too much, because this is to be executed, and at the right time make a final decision.”
When asked if this decision will be only after the elections, the minister stated that the Government is “already assessing the situation.”
“We do not want to condition the public debate. We do not want to contaminate the public debate. The Government is not conditioned by local elections. Another thing is the Government coming here and discussing candidate A, candidate B, solution A, solution B. That the Government does not do. The Government is the Government of the Republic, not of candidate A or candidate B,” he assured.
The official also left room for Metro do Porto’s role, which “will make its assessments” and has “the mayors also represented” in its structure, expecting “in this space for dialogue […] to find solutions.”
“What I have been hearing from various candidates, from the mayors themselves, is that the solution presented is a solution that does not serve the interests of the city of Porto. I will hear these versions, I will hear others that say exactly the opposite — namely from Metro do Porto — and then Metro do Porto will present a solution and the Government will assess that solution,” he summarized.
Miguel Pinto Luz also said he hopes that the next president of the transport company, Emídio Gomes, will take office this month.
The president of Metro do Porto, Tiago Braga, said in an interview with Lusa on August 18 that the story of the development of Porto’s metrobus “would make a book” because “it was often poorly told,” even out of “malice,” particularly regarding the issue of bus doors.
He also said that the institutional tension with the Porto City Hall “was never” caused by the transport company, but admitted that it conditioned the unfolding of the Rosa Line works.
In response, the mayor of Porto accused the Metro do Porto counterpart of incompetence and of trying “to justify the inexplicable” regarding delays in projects, also finding it strange the lack of a “firmer intervention” by the Government in the metrobus.
