Alexandra Leitão, to Diário de Notícias, assured that she would choose the CDU as a “primary partner” for proposal talks. João Ferreira went to Belém and recalled that the CDU suggested the Affordable Leasing Program in 2018, at the time with Fernando Medina as president.
“The 2021 amendment is co-signed by CDU and PS councilors and provides for more than 400 affordable homes,” he told journalists present this Thursday, October 9, at the Belém parish campaign action, calling for the construction of “400 houses ready to move forward”. Moedas’ “political decision” is criticized, but, halfway through the speech, João Ferreira makes it clear that the CDU “is about to build”, showing that agreements with the PS are possible. “This proposal was signed by the CDU and PS, it shows that we have a constructive stance, whether from the city government or from the opposition. Also in Local Accommodation it was done in co-authorship between PS and CDU”, he says.
Still, he states that the electoral framework “it can only be discussed after the results”, stressing, however, that “the PS recovers solutions that it advanced in the 14 years of governing the city that did not produce a single house”. “Partnerships with private parties, for example, in the way that the PS defends them, has already defended them during the 14 years of government. None of them worked. I’m warning people to think critically about these solutions”, he states, criticizing the PS/Livre/BE and PAN measures for housing, stating that “the CDU does not defend that everything has to be solely and exclusively municipal production, especially because the City Council does not have the capacity for that.”
Meanwhile, Pedro Nuno Santos, former leader of the PS, spoke out in support of Alexandra Leitão and considered that the PCP could “regret” if it harmed the PS election. João Ferreira repeated that the last four socialist years in the Chamber should lead to “regrets that have not yet been seen.” “It is good that no one forgets that Carlos Moedas’ actions over the last four years were supported by fundamental decisions by PS councilors”, he said, mentioning “the hotels approved without restrictions”, “the decapitalization of Carris, with the transfer of resources to events such as the Web Summit” and the “refund of the IRS that deprived the Chamber of 270 million euros of revenue that could be used in favor of the entire city.”
He also regretted the amount that Carlos Moedas invested in press relations after the Elevador da Glória accident: “It was a whole term thing. Excessive resources were spent on advertising. The best example of this are the countless billboards that, in violation of the law, even during electoral periods, continue to be displayed around the city.”