Before the presentation of Marcos Ramos’s candidacy for the Porto de Mós City Council in the Leiria district, Mariana Leitão expressed to journalists her desire for Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to clarify, “when mentioning 133,000 homes, are the 60,000 from the PRR [Recovery and Resilience Plan] included, or should they be added to these 133,000 homes?”
Mariana Leitão also questioned the origin of the investment. “A quick calculation shows that 1.3 billion will come from the European Investment Bank, and the rest through the Development Bank. But are we talking about debt incurred by municipalities, or central government debt? Who will be responsible for this amount, and how much are we talking about exactly?” inquired the IL leader.
The president of IL noted that Luís Montenegro’s proposal leaves other questions unanswered: “Who are these homes for, and for what purpose? Are they for rent? Are they for controlled-cost sales? Are they for the middle class, or are they social support for people who, indeed, cannot achieve decent housing?” she continued to ask.
Mariana Leitão believes that “one of the Government’s major priorities” should be to “stimulate the market,” “starting from the construction side, creating conditions, lowering taxes, reducing bureaucracy, and speeding up licensing.”
From the rental side, “liberalizing the rental market so that it also creates confidence among landlords to put their properties on the market by unfreezing rents, which is a long-standing issue that urgently needs resolving.”
The PSD president and prime minister announced today more investment for affordable housing. As a first measure, he announced that next Thursday, a credit line with the European Investment Bank of more than 1.3 billion euros for affordable housing will be signed.
Faced with Luís Montenegro’s stance that he will not negotiate the State Budget based on ultimatums or red lines, Mariana Leitão indicated that she wants to wait to “see the level of ambition the Government will have, especially regarding tax cuts, which are essential to relieve families and businesses, but also regarding the reform of the State,” which “is crucial and must be executed.”
The IL leader advocates for a more agile and efficient State that does not represent the expenses it currently does without the appropriate return for the people.”
Present in Porto de Mós for the launch of candidates for the local elections, Mariana Leitão acknowledged that in the 2025 elections, the presence of IL throughout the national territory is “increasingly significant.”
“We have many more candidacies than we had four years ago,” and “this is an extraordinary sign of the growth of the Liberal Initiative and how that growth also translates into public policies, at the municipal level, for the quality of life,” she emphasized.
The IL leader stated that the goal is to elect as many people as possible in all municipalities where it is running, “so that in the future, people feel the difference of living in a municipality managed transparently, efficiently, and with a focus on truly solving people’s problems.”
