“No fake news here”: PS leader visits properties government is ‘holding back for political gain’

Having claimed earlier in the week that the government is holding back completed homes for political gain, PS leader José Luís Carneiro travelled to the Alentejo region to expose the situation in full technicolour.

Accompanied by members of parliament and local authorities, the socialist leader visited some of the 10 houses built with funds from the PRR (Plan for Recovery and Resilience) that remain uninhabited in Azinheira dos Barros, in the municipality of Grândola, district of Setúbal.

As he told reporters: “I saw that there was no rush to try and deny what I stated. As you can see, what I stated is factual…”

In his closing speech at the party’s parliamentary sessions on Tuesday, Carneiro claimed that the government had houses ready to take families but was not handing them over, suggesting the executive was waiting “for a new electoral cycle”.

In Azinheira dos Barros, he posed a question: is the Government waiting for “people to forget these were projects planned, launched, and executed by PS governments” or is it “waiting for some electoral event” to deliver them.

“Under any circumstances, this would be inadmissible, unacceptable, and naturally deserves our condemnation,” he reiterated.

Image of Socialist leader in Alentejo yesterday: Partido Socialista

In statements to journalists, the leader of the Socialist Party indicated that these houses “have been ready for two years, were financed with the PRR in a decision by the then Socialist government” yet they are still “awaiting their social function”.

Revealing all this “means that people can trust the word of the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party,” he added. “And the Government cannot claim ignorance,” he stressed, explaining that PS MPs Nuno Fazenda and André Pinotes Batistas, who accompanied him on the Alentejo visit, have raised this issue “several times” in parliament.

Azinheira dos Barros is definitely not the only situation where completed social homes remain uninhabited, Mr Carneiro added. There are other cases like this in the country, “not only housing, but also social facilities.”

Also addressing  journalists, president of the Azinheira dos Barros Parish Council, Pedro Ruas, elected by the Socialist Party, specified that the 10 single-family homes, with T1, T2 and T3 layouts, representing an investment of 1.5 million euros, have been completed – and ready to take people who need them – since October 2024.

“In other words, these houses have been prepared and ready to be inhabited for almost two years, awaiting the Portuguese state institutions to define their intended use,” he said, explaining that the Social Security Institute (ISS) and the Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute (IHRU) have not yet decided.

The councilman emphasised that the two institutes should not even be deciding who qualifies to be awarded these homes. It should be a matter for the parish council.

The houses “were built, in an initial phase, to empower victims of domestic violence and human trafficking,”with management handled by the Padre Américo Foundation and the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV), he added.

Yet the local authority has been waiting since October 2024 for the ISS and IHRU “to define the funding model for this type of social service”.

“We were told about a month ago that the only possible solution is to transfer the houses from the National Emergency and Temporary Accommodation Fund to the 1st Right [programme], because it is the only way to meet the goals of the PRR,” he added – which in itself makes a mockery of the government’s mantra that it means to reduce bureaucracy in public administration.

Source material: LUSA