The Prime Minister stated this Sunday, December 14th, that regionalization will not be addressed in this legislature, because “the time is inadequate and inopportune” and it is necessary to “deepen the ongoing decentralization”.
“This government, in this legislature, considers that it is necessary to deepen the current decentralization. It is necessary to evaluate it, it is necessary to take it even further in its intermunicipal dimension. But this will not be the legislature where regionalization will be addressed”, said Luís Montenegro, at the closing session of the XXVII Congress of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), which ends today in Viana do Castelo.
The Prime Minister says there is “inadequate time for this progress”.
“A really inopportune time. The ongoing decentralization process must be deepened in the spirit of municipalism and the executive capacity of municipalities”, defended.
Montenegro wanted to make this option “very clear”, so that there are no misunderstandings in the relationship with local authorities “and we are not deceiving each other.
“A partnership relationship must be embodied in a relationship of loyalty and frontality. We cannot be partners if we do not have the courage to tell each other what we think”, he explained.
ANMP defends, in the resolution approved at congress, that regionalization is fundamental to end an “unequal and unbalanced” country, making national interests compatible with those of the various territories.
The ANMP considers that a national regional development policy “must be articulated with all agents in the territory, so that, in decision-making processes, the interests of the country are compatible with the diverse interests of its various territories and regions”.
“Only administrative regions will be able to play this role, effectively and efficiently fulfilling the indispensable articulation of transversal policies”, argue the municipalities.