Porto. Pizarro focuses on housing and mobility

The PS candidate for Porto City Council, Manuel Pizarro, announced this Monday that he wants to provide 5,000 houses with moderate rents over the next four years, while also promising to lay the foundations for an urban rehabilitation programme. In his speech presenting his candidacy, which took place at the Palácio da Bolsa in Porto, the candidate announced that in addition to housing, mobility and security will also be priorities if he is elected mayor, and thanked José Luís Carneiro for attending.

Still on the subject of housing, he promised to mobilize all agents in the sector to make affordable housing available, while allowing the market to function healthily in other segments and, thus, help with their taxes to finance the moderate rent program and, thus, regenerate and place on the housing market the approximately 20 thousand vacant and degraded homes that remain in the city , he explained.

Manuel Pizarro warns, however, that the effort of this program will have to be extended over time.

Pizarro admits “closing several arteries in the city center to traffic” and defends investment in public transport

Regarding mobility, the “Porto Style” candidacy advocates an approach that goes beyond the city, and that has a metropolitan and regional scale, having as a backdrop “the fact that 77% of the cars that circulate in Porto come from outside”.

In this context, he argues that the Porto Public Transport Company must work hand in hand with the Metropolitan Transport Company, that buses must be more comfortable, preferably with two floors, and that people know their timetables , with Manuel Pizarro making a commitment to make the Andante pass free for people over 65 in 2026.

The PS candidate defends the expansion of the Porto metro and support for the modernization of taxis , while TVDE “must be regulated and qualified” and their number in circulation “must be limited and regulated, under penalty of cannibalizing the city streets”, while the metrobus “must quickly and urgently enter into operation” .

Still in the mobility chapter, he defends the diversion of heavy traffic from the Via de Cintura Interna (VCI) to the Porto External Regional Circular (CREP) and the abolition of circular tolls to Porto and the improvement of “access to problematic nodes, firstly in Francos and access to the Motorway (A)3 and the A4.

Regarding soft modes of transport, on foot or by bicycle, he promised to invest in the city, even if this means “closing several arteries in the city centre to traffic” , it reads.

To deal with the third priority, security, Manuel Pizarro, guarantees that “there will be greater visibility, greater proximity and greater presence on the street of the security forces” who “will help the team with the appropriate vehicles”.

In his speech to more than 400 people, Manuel Pizarro also stated that social cohesion “is a pillar of security”, assuming the “leadership of a true cohesion program, offering social and health support to drug users, promoting their reintegration”.

In a phase in which he hardened his speech, the socialist candidate stated that he will not accept “that investment in Porto and the North be relegated to a secondary plan”, rejecting the idea that “all investment in Lisbon is national and benefits everyone”.

In attendance, among others, were the candidate for secretary general of the PS, José Luís Carneiro , as well as Fernando Paulo, who in the current term is a councilor of the executive led by the independent Rui Moreira. Pizarro said that this support from the politician from Baião demonstrates the unity of the party.

“I think that today we gave a great sign of total unity within the socialist family and we gave other signs, which I consider to be equally or more relevant, of the ability to bring here part of the best that Porto has to offer in different areas”, said the candidate in statements at the end of the ceremony that took place at the Palácio da Bolsa.

Emphasizing his desire to run a “positive” electoral campaign, Manuel Pizarro, when asked about the criticisms of his opponent Pedro Duarte, PSD candidate for Porto, regarding the implementation of the metrobus, preferred to take the issue of mobility to another subject.

“As my opponent is a member of the Government [Minister of Parliamentary Affairs], something that could be resolved, apparently a simple thing, was to end tolls for heavy goods vehicles on the CREP [Cintura Regional Externa do Porto] to free up the Internal Beltway for heavy goods vehicles”, responded the former PS Health Minister.

Agreeing that “the fragmentation of any political space helps another political space”, referring to the fact that there are many right-wing candidates running for the Porto City Council, Manuel Pizarro stated, however, that this is not what he is committed to.

“I am confident in the deep relationship I have with the people of Porto and in the fact that I will present the best proposals and the best teams in these elections. This will be a candidacy that is not directed against anyone. It is truly a positive candidacy in favor of Porto,” he said.

When asked whether he would have more pressure to win the elections after the results of the general elections, he replied: “My relationship with Porto is so intimate and so deep that nothing changes in that regard. I am running for Porto, always putting Porto first. There is no moment in my life, as a citizen and as a politician, that I have not put Porto first.”