Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa expressed optimism on Wednesday about the political solution that will emerge from the legislative elections on 10 March and warned the new government not to waste time renegotiating the Recovery and Resilience Plan in Brussels after the last government’s negotiations resulted in a year-long standstill.
According to Costa, the Recovery Plan already provides for a non-repayable investment of €3.2 billion, intending to build 32,000 more homes over the next three years, and has an implementation deadline of 31 December 2026.
On Wednesday, the mayor of Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, expressed concern about the outlook that the Portuguese will wake up to on the morning of 11 March following the snap parliamentary elections, but the leader of the government was “optimistic” and said he was convinced that “citizens will not want to go backwards”.
“I think the Portuguese will wake up well on the morning of 11 March,” he said.
“The country knows one thing: like it or not, the Recovery and Resilience Plan is contracted between Portugal and the European Union, and we are obliged to comply with it until 31 December 2026; like it or not, you will have to comply with the 32,000 homes contracted with the European Union, because if you don’t build them, we will lose the money,” Costa said.
In this context, he left a piece of advice for the next government, alluding to a situation happening with a member state that he didn’t identify.
“The last government that came in and wanted to renegotiate its Recovery and Resilience Plan, what it achieved was a year’s standstill, and now it’s begging to be extended. The country can’t keep changing its mind. Every word that is lost makes it more difficult to realise the Recovery and Resilience Plan,” he warned.
This position on the Recovery Plan was defended by Costa at the closing session of the protocol signed between the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IRHU) and Oeiras Town Hall for the construction of 700 homes at the former Algés Radionaval Station. In his speech, he “hoped” that President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa would still promulgate a piece of legislation that he considered “essential” on land use planning and urbanisation licensing.
(Pedro Morais Fonseca – edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho | Lusa.pt)
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