The PS today asked for parliamentary consideration of the law that introduced changes to local accommodation, with the aim of repealing them, considering that it is “excessively radical” and liberalizes the activity in the midst of the housing crisis.
Speaking to journalists in parliament, socialist deputy Maria Begonha announced the request for parliamentary consideration “on the Government’s measures that are not only to liberalize accommodation again”, but also “to revoke what the PS had done in favor of housing with Mais Moradia”.
According to the PS deputy, these changes result in “a regime in local accommodation that completely returns to the past”.
“We hope that the Government can understand that it needed to moderate its proposal, we are not waiting for the Government to agree with us that it was necessary to tear up these changes they made”, he told journalists.
Hoping that with the public debate and the reopening of this issue “it will make the Government understand that it has a right-wing majority, but it does not have a majority in the country”, Maria Begonha said that the PS wants, with this parliamentary assessment, “the cessation of validity of these measures in their entirety”.
The PS deputy highlighted that socialists do not demonize the activity of local accommodation nor have they ever wanted to put an end to it.
“One of the central measures of ‘Mais Habitação’ were the restrictions on local accommodation, which had one of the most liberalized regimes in Europe, which removed the supply of houses”, he recalled.
In the midst of “a brutal housing crisis”, the PS when it was in Government, according to Maria Begonha, “what it did was understand that with the disproportionate growth of local accommodation it was necessary to restore the balance”.
“Pause to breathe and say: given the disproportionate growth, given the reality of the housing crisis we needed to pause, restrict access to local accommodation, regulate access to create a balance between tourism and the right to housing ”, he said.
Highlighting that the PS “prioritized the right to housing”, the deputy considered that these measures that the Government has now approved, citing the Prime Minister, “tear up the restrictions” on local accommodation that had been made by the socialists, in addition to there being a “ removal of decision-making power from condominium owners”.
“Our objective is to start a debate that will unfortunately have few surprises, but in the hope that the Government can understand that this is an excessively radical measure to reopen and liberalize accommodation in the face of the housing crisis”, he explained.
