The Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, said today that the Government of the Republic has suspended the changes planned by the Regional Government to the social mobility subsidy (SSM), pending the enactment of the changes approved in the Assembly of the Republic.
“The Government suspended all the changes it was making. It awaits the decision. The Assembly of the Republic is sovereign,” said Miguel Pinto Luz, at a hearing at the Committee on Infrastructure, Mobility and Housing of the Assembly of the Republic.
On the 18th of March, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing said in the same committee that the executive was working on an amendment to the social mobility allowance so that passengers from the Azores and Madeira would not have to advance the total cost of trips to the mainland and wait for reimbursement.
“It was the Government’s commitment that by the summer we would present a solution so that the Azoreans and Madeirans would not need to advance the full value of their trips,” said Miguel Pinto Luz at the time, saying he was convinced that it would be possible to anticipate this deadline.
Meanwhile, on the 10th of Apri, the Assembly of the Republic approved, with only the PSD voting against (excluding the deputies of the autonomous regions) and the abstention of IL, PCP and CDS-PP, a proposal to amend the model for awarding the social mobility allowance, which resulted from two parliamentary appraisals of the diploma, which had been published in January, presented by the PS and Chega.
Asked today about the creation of the mechanism announced to allow passengers from the autonomous regions to pay only the value of the resident fare, Miguel Pinto Luz said the Government has suspended these changes.
“The Government cannot be asked to continue negotiating with the banks, to negotiate a platform, and then the President of the Republic promulgates it in a week or two. We are waiting for what the final wording is,” he pointed out, referring to the legislation approved in the Assembly of the Republic.
One of the changes approved to the social mobility subsidy, now called the Territorial Continuity Mechanism (TCM), was the end of the application of a maximum ceiling to the eligible cost of tickets, which was contested by the Government.
“Our conviction is that it will go wrong, and the first signs are already clear about that. The irresponsibility, populism, demagoguery, and partisanship that led this entire transformative agenda within this commission will have its consequences,” warned Miguel Pinto Luz.
Asked when the changes approved in the Assembly of the Republic will be implemented, which provide, for example, changes in access to the electronic platform created to request the refund of tickets, the minister said he did not have a date, but referred this implementation to the Ministry of Finance.
“The final wording was only settled yesterday [Tuesday] and will now be sent to the Presidency of the Republic for promulgation. Once the Government has access to it, they’ll naturally make their decisions. I can’t say when that will happen, it first depends on the Assembly of the Republic and then on the President of the Republic, he said.
Miguel Pinto Luz was called to the commission to respond to three requests presented in December by JPP, Chega, and PS, on the obligation to regularise the contributory and tax situation in access to the SSM. A measure that was revoked in the amendments approved in the Assembly of the Republic.
Deputy Francisco Gomes, from Chega, accused the Government of the Republic of treating the autonomous regions with great contempt, even challenging it to have the courage to hold a referendum on independence in Madeira.
Francisco CĂ©sar, from the PS, warned that tickets to the autonomous regions have never been so expensive, costing up to 700 euros per route, and argued that what the Assembly of the Republic did was patch up what the Government did wrong.
Gonçalo Lage, from the PSD, claimed that the applicability of the amendments approved in the Assembly of the Republic “will be extremely difficult” and regretted that the electronic platform has been perceived as an attack on the autonomous regions, when the objective was to create a flexible solution.
AngĂ©lique da Teresa, from IL, expressed concern about the “irresponsibility” at ending the maximum ceiling on the eligible value of tickets and warned that the model adopted in the Canary Islands “faces severe structural crises.”
In turn, Filipe Sousa, from the JPP, insisted that Madeirans and Azoreans should only pay their share and that there has to be an effective responsibility on the part of the State to assume its share with the airlines.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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