The recent statements by the Mayor of Loures suggest the intention to evict around 400 municipal tenants who are in arrears and have not responded to attempts at debt regularization.
The socialist mayor made these comments last week during the Local Summit event organized by the Eco newspaper, stating that approximately two years ago, 1,200 tenants from municipal neighborhoods were identified for not paying rent.
Efforts to contact Ricardo Leão for clarification on the municipality’s regularization plan and the announced evictions were not successful as he declined to comment further.
In October 2024, during a statement to Lusa, the Loures Mayor had expressed the municipality’s intention to evict families in municipal housing who did not respond to rent regularization proposals, indicating at that time the plan involved 550 families.
However, when questioned, opposition parties in Loures, mainly the CDU and Chega, accused Ricardo Leão of using the issue of municipal housing for “demagoguery” and “propaganda.”
“The municipality cannot and is playing for electoral reasons. What is being said does not align with reality. In October, he said 500 eviction orders would be issued and now it’s 400. The Mayor says he’s ending populism, but he’s the biggest populist,” said Bruno Nunes, a Chega councilor in Loures, a municipality in the Lisbon district.
The Assembly of the Republic member also challenged the Mayor to disclose how many people have actually been evicted and emphasized the need to distinguish between those who “cannot pay and those who do not want to.”
“We do not want anyone to be evicted just for numbers’ sake. Even among those who do not pay, Chega supports considering those who cannot pay and those who do not want to. I do not want 82-year-olds being evicted because they have no income,” he argued.
Similarly, communist councilor Gonçalo Caroço criticized the eviction threats, calling them “a smokescreen.”
“This situation is not new, it’s reheated, and it arises whenever there are difficulties. It’s a discourse where people are segregated and made scapegoats,” he pointed out.
Gonçalo Caroço argued that the municipality should “communicate with the residents instead of generalizing.”
On the other hand, PSD councilor Nélson Batista, involved in municipal administration, asserted that “public resources should be managed with social justice,” adding that “those benefiting from municipal housing should comply.”
“Those who do not are, by choice, distancing themselves from the commitment made to the community. More than an administrative act, it is an ethical procedure, respecting those who comply and pay their taxes,” he argued.
The Loures executive includes four elected members from the PS, including the mayor, four from the CDU, two from the PSD, and one from Chega.
The PS and PSD have established an agreement to ensure governmental stability of the Municipal Council, which was won in September 2021 by the socialist Ricardo Leão without an absolute majority.
