In response to criticism, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, during a hearing in the Assembly of the Republic regarding the review, in detail, of the proposed State Budget for 2026, responded with irony, inviting the opposition to continue pressing the matter: “Go ahead, because you are on the right track.”
For Livre, deputy Isabel Mendes Lopes criticized the message the moderate rent sends, as it is “an incentive” for values to rise up to 2,300 euros.
“Maximum limits are anchors,” she argued, countering: “We don’t want rents of 2,300 euros in Leiria, and we don’t want them in Lisbon either.”
The exchange of arguments between Minister Miguel Pinto Luz and Mariana Mortágua (BE) was more heated.
The deputy noted that “the demand for housing is inelastic” and, therefore, “moderate rent is an incentive to set rents at 2,300 euros.”
In response to the minister’s reaction, she said: “Don’t tell me I don’t know Economics.”
“I am an engineer, far be it for me to say I understand more about Economics than the deputy,” replied Pinto Luz, calling her “histrionic.”
Mortágua reacted, and the minister asked if he couldn’t use the word, explaining that he meant the deputy “is constantly vocalizing and so affirmatively.”
According to the Priberam Portuguese language dictionary, histrionic is someone “who represents or demonstrates feelings with exaggeration.”
Amid economists and engineers, deputy Frederico Francisco (PS) presented himself as a physicist and proposed “a functional approach” to moderate rent. “If rent prices stop increasing, we will consider the measure successful,” he promised.
During the debate, the minister stated that the Government “acted in everything it could” regarding housing, noting that “houses are not built overnight.”
This was in response to deputy Francisco Gomes (Chega), who called for “more houses, faster, cheaper.”
Recognizing that the impact of some measures, particularly those related to VAT and IRS, “will only be felt later,” Pinto Luz, however, claimed that the Government made “ten times more” investment in housing than previous ones.
Also in response to Chega, the minister assured that by December, the Government would present a proposal on the eviction issue, aiming to provide “legal confidence” to landlords of the 300,000 properties that are out of the rental market to bring them back.
