By: CHRIS GRAEME
THREE OF Portugal’s lesser known fringe political parties with candidates running
for the Lisbon Câmara elections on July 15 all agree that rescheduling the city’s massive debt must be a priority.
Pedro Quartin Graça(Movimento Partido da Terra – MPT) believes that his green and environmental party has ‘pioneering policies’. “We’re the first to put forward a ‘Green Plan’ by creating a link between Parque Eduardo VII and Monsanto. We also believe in imposing congestion charges for Lisbon,” he said.
As to solving the Câmara’s monumental debt, Pedro Quartin Graça believes it is necessary to draw up an inventory of all the municipal patrimony including buildings and land, which could be sold to pay some debt.
He also believes that Lisbon is ‘an enemy to its own citizens’ in as far as it is full of obstacles. “We need to draw up a general accessibility plan, putting up signs and signals where there aren’t any, and take others down where they make life difficult for Lisbon citizens,” he said.
He also believes it is necessary to encourage more young people into the city centre, building affordable housing, and defend traditional shopping commerce under threat from large shopping centres.
“I think we also need to create a metropolitan police force to bring greater security to the city while improving the public transport network in Lisbon,” he said.
Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira, candidate for monarchist party Partido Popular Monárquico (PPM), believes that the time has come to renew the political class in Lisbon and Portugal.
Cheaper Lisbon
The candidate, whose family includes brothers and singers Mico and Nuno Câmara Pereira, thinks that Lisbon isn’t doing enough to exploit the river Tagus which needs “more activity”. “If I was elected, I would reinstate traditional boats on the river,” he said, adding that parking should be free for city inhabitants, which would make Lisbon cheaper to live and encourage younger
people into the city.
He would also scrap the SRU (Urban Rehabilitation Society) which only serves to provide cushy jobs for Câmara members, allowing the Town Hall to occupy or expropriate buildings which it doesn’t have the money to maintain. “The Câmara has thousands of buildings in Lisbon and is one of the main guilty parties as to the reason why so many are abandoned,” he said.
He is completely against congestion charges, saying, “They (former Câmara administrations)
closed off Alfama and Bairro Alto to traffic and now they’re becoming lifeless. Lisbon was always an open city and should continue to be so,” he added.
When asked how his party would push for greater mobility and a better environment in Lisbon, he answered, “with less polluting transport, allowing motorbikes to use the bus lanes, putting up prices on parking metres for nonresidents, and always maintaining the cities parks and gardens in good order and not just at election time.”
Extreme right wing nationalist candidate José Pinto Coelho (Partido Nacional Renovador – PNR), said that the PNR represented the opinions of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese. His policies for Lisbon include developing EPUL to build middle class housing and housing for young people, re-evaluate the other Câmara companies which “only serve to provide jobs for the boys”, cut all grants and handouts to fringe minorities and immigrants, increase Lisbon’s police presence and get tough on crime-ridden no-go zones like Chelas, create more parking and make public transport more secure.
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