The Lisbon Municipal Assembly approved on Tuesday the contracting of a loan of 83.5 million euros to finance the construction and redevelopment of 61 nurseries and schools, with an expected interest rate of around 28.4 million euros.
By roll call vote, the municipal assembly approved the proposal of the chamber, with 46 votes in favour, specifically from the PSD, Chega, CDS-PP, Aliança and some PS deputies.
Among the 75 members of the assembly, with three absent, There were still 16 abstentions of deputies from PS, PCP, PEV, Liberal Initiative (IL), MPT and Livre, and 10 votes against, specifically from elected representatives of PS, BE, PAN, BE, PPM and independent members of Cidadão Por Lisboa (elected by PS/Livre Coalition).
Asking for a “vote of confidence” from the deputies, Since the viability of this proposal requires an absolute majority (38 votes in favour), the Vice-President of the Lisbon Chamber, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), responsible for Finance, explained that this loan aims to invest in nurseries, centres and schools, indicating that part of the 83.5 million euros can be financed from the General State Budget.
Representing the main opposition party to the PSD/CDS government, the leader of the PS municipal group, Manuel Lage, recalled that this is the second loan from the chamber this year – in March 50.845 billion euros were contracted for investments until 2025 – and considered that it is a political option to use commercial banking instead of the European Investment Bank (EIB), criticising the impossibility of using funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
Despite considering that this loan “is not the best way” and expressing his concern about “the amount of interest”, the socialist indicated that the PS will not give “an alibi” to the PSD/CDS leadership to avoid intervening in schools.
Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira, from the Partido Popular Monárquico (PPM), which was part of the “Novos Tempos” coalition (PSD/CDS/Aliança/MPT/PPM), expressed his desire to “burst”, regretting the lack of involvement of his party with the chamber, led by PSD/CDS.
“There were five parties that won the chamber […] and only two govern the chamber without giving a damn about any of the other three”said the PPM deputy, pointing out that this situation “undermines democracy”, and stated that after the elections in September 2021 he no longer had contact: “They turned off the phone”.
Following the intervention of the PS to make the proposal viable, the president of the PPM warned that, from now on, the documents must be negotiated with his party so that it can vote in favour “or look for other friends”, because “whoever tries to like friends does not need enemies”.
This is the municipal investment programme, “of a multi-annual nature and with a four-year execution period”, to “proceed with the requalification of 1st cycle and pre-school schools, and basic 2, 3 and secondary schools, transferred to the municipality within the framework of the decentralisation of powers, and the construction of nurseries”, according to the proposal signed by the vice-president of the chamber, indicating that the investments “amount to approximately 83,514,000 euros, in the 2024/2025 biennium”.
In this context, the chamber consulted the bank to contract a medium and long-term loan, in which Santander’s proposal was considered the most advantageous for the municipality, “with a all in cost of 3.061%, for an indicative nominal rate of 4.173% and a volume of loads of around 28.4 million euros,” said the vice president.
In the 2021-2025 term, there are 13 municipal groups that make up this deliberative body of the city of Lisbon: PS (27 deputies), PSD (17), CDS-PP (six), PCP (five), BE (four), IL (three), Chega (three), PEV (two), PAN (one), Livre (one), PPM (one), MPT (one) and Aliança (one), two independent deputies from the Ciudadanos por Lisboa movement (elected by the PS/Livre coalition) and one unregistered deputy (who left the CDS), for a total of 75 elected.
Source: Observadora
