The Left Bloc proposes transferring 150 million euros from the Portugal National Budget to the Azores in 2025. This is the increase that the Regional Government has been demanding from the Government of the Republic. António Lima—a member of the Azorean parliament and the party’s coordinator in the archipelago—made the announcement at the end of the third edition of the Zuraida Soares Days in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel island.
The Regional Government has included 150 million euros more in the Preliminary Draft Budget for the Region for 2025 than what is provided for in the National Budget proposal presented by Luís Montenegro’s government.
The Left Bloc believes that guaranteeing this increase in transfers to the Azores is fair and important, which is why the commitment was made publicly today at an event attended by Marina Mortágua, the Bloc’s national leader.

“We really need to increase the transfers to the Azores because this is the way to guarantee that we have money to invest in housing, public services, social support, and to have crèches for all the children,” said the Bloc’s member of the Regional Assembly.
António Lima recalled that the Bloc has advocated changes to the Regional Finance Law for several years to guarantee more predictability and increased transfers to the Autonomous Regions.
To do this, the Regional Finance Law, which PSD and CDS approved in the Assembly of the Republic during the troika’s time, must be changed.
“When the Bloc proposed in the Azorean parliament to start a process to change the law in 2018, the PSD said that the law was good and abstained,” but ”now José Manuel Bolieiro says that the Azores lack 150 million euros.”
António Lima hopes that this proposal will be approved in a special session during the discussion of the National Budget.
“If these funds aren’t in the National Budget for 2025, the PSD’s Parliamentary Members must vote against the budget, otherwise, all this hype from José Manuel Bolieiro is just a propaganda stunt,” concluded António Lima.

In Rádio Ilhéu

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