"We have a housing program to correspond exactly to the great desires of real estate speculation, of the large speculative groups and of the banks", said Paulo Raimundo, who spoke to journalists at the end of a public session with about fifty supporters, in Samouco, municipality of Alcochete, in the district of Setúbal.

"Of the 30 measures, there is not one that affects the interests of the banks. Worse, not only does it not affect them, but the State once again becomes the banks' great guarantor", he added.

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, today stated that the new strategy for housing, which includes a set of 30 measures, aims to "restore the confidence" of the Portuguese people, contrary to the program of the previous Government, which "was still in gestation and had already been condemned to failure".

But, for the communist leader, the strategy of the AD Government does not include two measures that the PCP considers fundamental to respond to the housing problem in Portugal: stopping the increase in rents and reducing interest rates.

"There are two fundamental issues: first, stopping the increase in rents and then intervening on interest rates. If we cannot intervene on the European Central Bank (ECB), we must intervene on the banks, the national banks, the banks that are making millions and millions of euros at the expense of people's lives", said Paulo Raimundo.

Regarding the Government's lack of response to the demands of police officers, teachers, bailiffs and other sectors of activity, Paulo Raimundo recalled that the current Prime Minister made many promises during the electoral campaign and that he will now have to fulfill them.

"The Government created a fair expectation among security professionals, doctors, nurses, teachers and bailiffs, to whom it promised to solve their problems", he said.

"The Government has no conditions to go back on the promises it made. And it is not worth coming up with justifications, that there are no means, that there are no conditions and that it found a different situation. No, the Government knew the situation, knew the demands and stated what it stated in the electoral campaign. It will have to comply, it has no alternative. It will have to comply", he stressed.

Confronted with the possibility of a possible worsening of public accounts to respond to all the demands, Paulo Raimundo argued that it is not necessary and that the Government only needs to end the tax benefits to economic groups to immediately collect about 1.6 billion euros.

"The Government should end the granting of tax benefits to economic groups and it has 1.6 billion euros there. There are 1.6 billion euros in tax benefits for large companies, those with 25 million euros in profits per day, for banks, for EDP, for Galp. End this and it will immediately release 1.6 billion euros", said Paulo Raimundo.

Read Also: Housing? "Solutions are insufficient and even worsen the problem" (Portuguese version)