Opposition forces continue to vote tactically
Much-awaited reversal of the more draconian Socialist measures to fix the housing crisis was sent bowling into the long grass by parliament yesterday.
Opposition MPs voted very much as they did when the minority government presented its proposal for reducing motorway tolls.
Explains CNN Portugal, the result is neither a win for Alojamento Local (the short term rentals sector), nor Mais Habitação – the housing policy devised by PS Socialists and initially voted against by all other parties.
Yesterday, ‘the other parties’ blocked a number of proposals that would have reversed key parts of Mais Habitaçáo. Even CHEGA voted, as it did in the tolls episode, with PS Socialists.
Does this mean the government’s blue print for housing is lost? Apparently not – whatever the government manages will clearly take time.
Explains Jornal de Negócios, “parties that support the government (meaning PSD and CDS-PP) opted to put forward a motion for a resolution with recommendations to the Executive to go ahead with what is already in its programme – the logic being that, as the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing has already announced, the government itself will present a package of measures for housing in parliament, which should happen during the month of May”.
This does not mean the government “will have it easy”, warns the online, as “most of the measures it has for housing will have to go through parliament”. (And the country is already keenly aware of how that seems to be going…)
So what did happen yesterday?
The PS proposal to increase the IRS deductions for rental expenses to a maximum of €800 – compared to the current €600 – was approved in its generality, with the government (PSD and CDS-PP) voting against and the other parties voting in favour.
The proposal will now go to the special committee; the aim being for the measure to apply from January 1, 2025, i.e. it will only be reflected in next year’s income tax declarations.
Two further proposals were approved in generality. One from PAN, which recommends that the government support the beneficiaries of Porta 65 in the initial costs of their rental contracts; and a second from LIVRE, which also recommends that the government ‘reinforce measures to support university accommodation in Portugal’.
Proposals by Liberal Initiative (to reverse the most restrictive measures of Alojamento Local) were all rejected, as were those tabled by CHEGA, the PCP and Bloco de Esquerda.
In all, 15 proposals were rejected, effectively delaying the release of restrictions on Alojamento Local, and perpetuating the Socialist measure concerning the enforced rental of vacant habitable properties.
A government ‘resolution’ proposing ‘a new path for housing’, with measures to ‘boost supply, correct errors and respond to the crisis’ (essentially repeating the lines set out in the government’s programme) was ultimately rejected by a combination of votes against from the Left, and abstention of CHEGA.
All in all, the optimistic stories of how prime minister Luís Montenegro planned to ‘run the country’ without any kind of working majority are looking like words spun by people who had no idea of what he would be facing.
