For Francisco Amaral, mayor of Castro Marim, there is a "scorched earth policy" and even a "Machiavellian" attitude on the part of the opposition. Célia Brito, councilor of the PS in the municipality of Castro, says that there was a lack of availability on the part of the president to dialogue and accept suggestions and that the lead of the Municipal Budget, in yesterday's Chamber Meeting, was «to the procedure and not to the document itself».
The Castro Marim Chamber Meeting this Monday, December 18, was marked by the lead of the Municipal Budget proposal for 2018 (and beyond) and opened a war between the executive led by the Social Democrat Francisco Amaral and the opposition, which is in the majority, with three councilors in this body, against two from the PSD.
The difficulty in getting the document through is not surprising, taking into account the results of the October elections, which determined the loss of the PSD's absolute majority in the Chamber, but that did not mean that President Francisco Amaral failed to launch strong criticisms of the opposition councilors.
“It is an authentic scorched earth policy. They took away all my skills. Even a simple license has to go to the Chamber Meeting, which is leaving services saturated, to the detriment of the population. It's irrational and irresponsible. I would even say that it is Machiavellian,” Francisco Amaral told the Sul Informação.
According to the mayor from Castromarinense, it was not for lack of efforts on the part of the executive that the opposition did not contribute to the document. “We, about a month ago, wrote to the opposition asking for contributions. They didn't have time to respond. 20 days ago we asked to sit at the table to discuss the budget. They didn't have time. Then I asked them to speak out and they didn't have time either», accused Francisco Amaral.
Célia Brito defended the voting option of the Socialists, who have two councilors in the Chamber, as many as the PSD – the fifth is José Estevens, former mayor, who ran as an independent.
“The PS did not vote against the Budget itself, it voted against the procedure adopted by the president of the Chamber, who did not want to postpone the vote on the document for a week, so that the opposition could study it and present suggestions. I think there was bad will on the part of the executive», accused Célia Brito.
The socialist councilor assured that “it was not our intention to reject the document” and that they would “certainly” approve it at the next Chamber Meeting. "The deadline for approval of the Municipal Budget is the 17th of January, so we were completely within the legal deadlines," he added.
In this way, and with Francisco Amaral's insistence on putting the document to a vote at yesterday's meeting, "there was not even a discussion of the budget." Something that would be important for the socialists, who want to see "explained in the document some of our proposals for the electoral campaign".
“The 2018 Budget did not include strengthening the delegation of powers to parish councils in the amounts we defend, nor does it foresee the Casa da Juventude project. But that was not even what would make the approval of the document unfeasible», assured Célia Brito.
As for Francisco Amaral's accusation of not having had feedback of her attempts to obtain contributions from the opposition to the budget, the socialist councilor says that she made her position very clear "in a meeting with the president shortly after the elections, where the budget was discussed" and that Mário Dias, also a socialist councilor in Castro Marim Chamber, had already sent, with time, an email to the president saying that the PS needed more time to analyze the document.
Francisco Amaral, on the other hand, accuses the opposition councilors of having as "the objective of paralyzing the Chamber". “They formed a negative coalition, just to destroy. It is a systematic boycott,” he said.
In this way, the president of Castro Marim passes the ball to the opposition side and waits “for them to present a budget and get it approved”, something that Célia Brito guaranteed that the opposition councilors are preparing to do.
O Sul Informação he also sought to obtain the position of the councilor elected by the Castro Marim Primeiro movement, but he was unable to speak with José Estevens until the time of publication of this article.
Comments