The Hostels Association of Portugal (AhdP), which is opposed to the presidential veto of the housing law, said today that it would be “a terrible sign for the democratic system” if the PS, with an absolute majority in parliament, went ahead with the legislation.
“It would be a terrible sign for the democratic system if the PS continued to ignore the widespread criticism of these measures, including from party activists themselves, abusing its absolute majority and voting discipline to force through an accelerated and ill-considered promulgation of the law,” AhdP said in a statement.
For the association, the veto by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, should be “a new opportunity for the government and the PS to reconsider the measures in this package that affect local accommodation and finally study the market, the scope and impact of the measures presented and the true benefit of this destruction”.
The proposed law “has grounds for at least questioning the constitutionality” of the measures relating to local accommodation, “namely with regard to proportionality, the unjustified violation of free economic initiative or fiscal inequality”, argues AhdP.
“The content of the presidential veto makes clear the factors that have been opposed by this association since the first measures were presented,” he adds.
The President of the Republic vetoed a set of legislative changes in the field of housing approved by the PS’s absolute majority in parliament, expressing a “serene negative judgment” on them, and criticized the lack of consensus.
“I know, and we all know, that the absolute parliamentary majority can repeat, in a few weeks, the approval just voted. But, as you will understand, this is not what can or should prevent the expression of a deep conviction and a serene negative analytical judgment,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in his message to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, available on the Presidency’s website.
The parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, announced today that the Socialist bench, which has an absolute majority of deputies, will confirm the diploma on housing vetoed by the President of the Republic.
“We respect the political disagreement of the President of the Republic, but we reaffirm the urgency of the response to the housing crisis, so we will confirm the diploma in the Assembly of the Republic, under the terms of the Constitution,” announced Eurico Brilhante Dias in a statement to journalists in parliament.