Sónia Sanfona, Socialist mayor of Alpiarça (Santarém district) has created a stir by suggesting the municipality ‘alter school-related subsidies’ afforded children whose families show ‘outward signs of wealth’.
The idea, which has already been criticised by leading figures within the party (former Euro MP Ana Gomes, and MPs João Costa and Eurico Brilhante Dias), is to be put to a vote in the next municipal assembly. The mayor’s reasoning is that “there are families with very evident signs of wealth that hide it in their (tax) declarations of earnings”.
She told a recent council meeting: “Outward signs of wealth are visible signs, they stand out, they are situations that everyone knows about.
For example, a family that has a high-end car that costs 30 or 40 thousand euros (…), or a mobile phone that costs more than a thousand euros. There are criteria that the law imposes, and there are criteria that I determine. The municipality determines that these signs should be valued in these situations”.
