JS leadership candidate wants 500 euro check for young people and zero tuition fees
This Saturday, MEP Bruno Gonçalves launches his candidacy for the leadership of the Socialist Youth (JS), arguing that Higher Education fees should return to zero euros and the State must pay 500 euros to each young person when they turn 18 so that he spends the following two years on cultural consumption.
In his motion, which will be titled “Freedom”, Bruno Gonçalves defends the allocation of 2% of GDP in public investment for the construction of houses by the State and also the creation of “green lane” mechanisms in licensing for those who want to build houses for rent at controlled costs.
TIAGO MIRANDA
Bruno Gonçalves27 years old, graduated in Braga in mechanical engineering, states that “party structures, which were born as guarantors of a plural environment and democratic alternation, were unable to keep up with the pace of evolution of the various sectors of society“, whereas, in your opinion, “Socialist Youth did not escape this crisis of confidence”.
So, what you want is a JS “open to civil society and not a club of friends”. And he argues that when choosing its leadership, the organization adopts the system long used in the PS: “Direct election of the general secretary, valuing the vote of grassroots activists” because “there is no reason that justifies the non-existence of this democratic link between the leadership and the activists who give it legitimacy”. If he wins, he will launch a membership campaign entitled “1000 activists in 100 days” where “active recruitment of students and young workers” will take place.
In his opinion, a “transformation and sophistication” of the national economy is required, “directing public investment to sectors with high potential and added value”: “Portugal must take advantage of this revolution to create value in the low population density territories closest to our only land border – almost always called the interior – and settle young people there who, otherwise, will continue to concentrate in large urban centers or, due to lack of options, leave the country.”
The issue of housing deserves to be highlighted in the MEP’s motion: “The path to emancipation will never be complete until young Portuguese people are able to have their own housing, whether as owners or renters, at affordable prices. Housing is now a priority issue at national level and the social cost of the problem cannot be ignored: students who are unable to study at their preferred university, young people stuck at home, families who hesitate in realizing their dream of having a child (or more).”
Therefore, what is necessary is to “rethink the role of the State in this matter”: “Public housing can and should respond to situations of greatest social emergency, but it is also necessary to put the Social State at the service of all families, building accessible public housing for the middle classes.“
Bruno Gonçalves, elected MEP for the PS in the last elections, is also Secretary General of the International Union of Socialist Youth. He is the second candidate to advance to the leadership of the PS youth organization, after Sofia Pereirawho is part of the organization’s national board and heads the Viseu district.
The last JS leader to be elected with a confrontation of candidacies was Pedro Nuno Santos – current leader of the party -, against João Tiago Henriques, in 2006. After that, there were only single candidacies, always presented in a logic of continuity compared to the previous leadership: Duarte Cordeiro (2008-2010), Pedro Delgado Alves (2010-2012), João Torres (2012-2016), Ivan Gonçalves (2016-2018), Maria Begonha (2018-2020) and Miguel Costa Matos (2020-present time).
