The rollover is achieved, but it was not done by the author of the embarrassment. After having stood up for the rejection of a proposal from the municipal executive, the leader of the PSD caucus in the Municipal Assembly, Luís Newton, was not present at this afternoon’s session where the PSD finally approved the SRU proposal made by the municipality. Vice President Anacoreta Correia took advantage of the irritation to announce that the executive is carrying out an audit of the company in charge of urban rehabilitation.
With an admission of the difficult vote –and pushed at the beginning of this afternoon’s meeting to the last item on the agenda–, it was up to Carlos Reis to defend the honor of the PSD/Lisbon and appeal to “the favorable majority” so that the proposal be approved by the Assembly.
With guarantees that “there is no problem between the PSD and Mayor Carlos Moedas”, referring to the fact that “every day that passes is a complete denial” of this disagreement, Carlos Reis says that “the PSD subordinates history, the past, to the interest of the successful fulfillment of the Nuevos Tiempos program and of this mandate”.
“The internal problems of the PSD are not the problems of Lisbon, we do not confuse ourselves with the State, the city or the community. We are a vehicle to transform society, unlike others that confuse”, said the municipal deputy.
The Socialist Party took the opportunity to capitalize and call itself an “enabling force”, trying to leave the label of “blocking force” delivered by Carlos Moedas at the bottom of the drawer.
“The PS knows what it has to do, the commitments assumed by the SRU are greater than any party dispute. Two weeks ago they called us a blocking force, but last week we made the same proposal viable,” said Socialist deputy Miguel Lage: “We simply cannot be the ones to vote in favor of the proposals of your executive.”
“We will not let Lisbon sit still, but we will not write blank checks either, although we still do not understand why they are now voting in favor,” said the deputy, once again highlighting the overturn carried out by the municipal deputies of the PSD.
Vice President Anacoreta Correia, who announced that the City Council is carrying out an internal audit of the SRU, stated “gratitudeto the municipal deputies, after the commotion of the last few days, guaranteeing that the executive remains faithful to the interests of the city: “As an executive we do not leave the place where we are. Next to the field, next to the city. We do not back down in the face of this interest, we will continue on this path and commitment to the city”.
“What we have shown is that we are fully available to render accounts and provide information to the deputies,” said Anacoreta Correia.
In the round of interventions, Isabel Mendes Lopes, from Livre, insisted on clarifying the PSD’s change in position: “What has changed in PSD Lisbon from last week to this one? Since the proposal is practically the same, what has changed? Something has changed and it was not the proposal”, said the deputy.
Angelique da Teresa, from the Liberal Initiative, called for the “emptying of the SRU”, so that it can be “extinct when it no longer has works under its seal”.
For Chega, Bruno Mascarenhas asked the “PS that defended the SRU so much to make it viable” and the “PSD to make a flic-flac to assume its responsibilities.”
The independent councilors, elected by Ciudadanos de Lisboa, were against the inclusion of the vote in the agenda of this Municipal Assembly, arguing that if the proposal is “very similar to the previous one, then it has already been rejected” and that, if it is a “new proposal, then the appropriate regimental route must be followed”: “Only in this way can the transparency of the process be accepted, regardless of the pirouette that the PSD makes in this assembly.”
Source: Observadora
