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Attacks on capital, speculation and the sale of public property to collapse. See the minutes of the Municipal Assembly that show the contradictions between the building owner and the Bloc politician.
"The planned city to the measure of speculators and respect for the capital". "The small company evicted and the last residents hunted on the outskirts" by the big real estate owners. The private sector is "who conceives the city and transforms it to his taste, decides who stays and who leaves". These three sentences could have been said this Saturday, by any political commentator, to analyze the controversy surrounding the building of Ricardo Robles. But not. On October 14, 2014, at a meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, they spoke out to criticize the rehabilitation that paved the way for speculative purposes. Those who heard it still did not know it, but five months before Robles won an auction to buy back a building in Alfama for 347 thousand euros that years later would put on the market for 5.7 million.
According to the minutes of this meeting, Ricardo Robles does not save many people: the mayor of that time, António Costa, "looked at the city as a financial asset," looking at Lisbon "With a cash register under the arm "and the sale of assets to the debacle; city councilor Manuel Salgado applied a "respect for capital" strategy and none for those who live and work in the city; Lisbon has more and more luxury hotels, many in the historic area; the state-owned asset management company, ESTAMO, was involved in a "huge real estate speculation operation". In one sentence: a city planned to the measure of speculators and respect for capital.
Speech by Ricardo Robles at the Lisbon City Council meeting, October 14, 2014
Let's face it: Ricardo Robles and his sister decided to raise their own money and pay 16% interest on a loan to Montepio (for the remaining amount and for works) to invest in a building in Lisbon. They presented a construction proposal in the Alfama area, in front of the Fado Museum and a few hundred meters from the Lisbon cruise terminal. A typical area, which attracts more tourists than tenants. The proposal was made to Social Security, which in the main years of the economic crisis has opened several of these contests to get rid of real estate. They won the contest, with an offer of 347 thousand euros, superior to the proposals of competitors: a local housing company, two individuals, a real estate agent and a contractor.
The brothers then carried out work worth 650 thousand euros renegotiating the interest rate of the loan with Caixa Geral, at 5%). They agreed with some residents of the building to renew the rents and with others tried to negotiate their exit (there is still an unresolved case in court). The building had a small business – in this case, a restaurant, Bread with butter – which no longer exists. The works completed and the construction of Alfama are put on sale for 5.7 million euros. It could even be for local housing.
In October 2014, Ricardo Robles-Municipal Assistant and urged with António Costa:
"The strategy of alienation of the municipal patrimony is false, because it abandons a fundamental instrument of intervention the CML should mobilize these buildings and other dispersed assets to intervene in housing policy.The rental stock would bring down prices, increasing the supply "
Ricardo Robles, 14 October 2014
Months ago, Ricardo Robles-citizen had already used a e sale of assets at a price significantly lower than the market value, not the market value or type of future use after rehabilitation. but social security. And he was not imposed any restrictions on the future use of the building purchased, as he later defended to who bought buildings at home.
Ricardo Robles cited a report from RTP to emphasize his opinion:
"There is gold in the Baixa & # 39; & # 39; 39, is the title of an excellent report made during the month of September by RTP, in the room that the reporter portrays the new Baixa Lisbon and all the activity of urban rehabilitation is oriented towards the hotels. five years ago there were six, today there are more than thirty, there are more than three thousand beds The small business was expelled and the last residents hunted On the outskirts "
Ricardo Robles, October 14, 2014
In practice, the case that the MP had made jointly with his sister, months before, would ultimately result in Robles maintaining a dispute with the owners, as they did not want to leave the place under the conditions that the councilor We were on February 25, 2014. That was exactly one month before the start of the auction of the building that Ricardo Robles bought for 347,000 in the region of Alfama, while social security was preparing to put it on the market with a base of an offer of 286 thousand euros (value resulting from an independent evaluation), the left-wing municipal deputy asked the floor to intervene What was discussed, inter alia things? Precisely Alteration to the Plan of Urbanization of the Historic Center of Alfama and Castle Hill – where was the property that would be the adviser of the Left Bloc.
According to the minutes of this meeting, Ricardo Robles voted against. Why? According to the bloc, the diploma reflected a strategy for the capital that "imposed, or allowed Lisbon to achieve, more construction, waterproofing of public places and, inter alia, an increase in the rate of construction." It was unacceptable. Robles pointed out that changes in the use of buildings in hotels and buildings were considered "beneficial for tourism and the creation of new jobs",
On Saturday, the Robles building in Alfama was on sale on the Internet with the description that "the apartments are ready to be used in short-term tenancy ". In other words, Ricardo voted against, but will have used the new rules of the game to make his building available to the locals, a means, currently, much more profitable to take advantage of several fractions that the usual long-term lease.
On 18 March, in the same place, the municipal deputies discussed proposal 851/2013, referring to a simplified modification of the Lisbon Master Plan. It was a week before the auction of the property that is now owned by Ricardo Robles, and the BE municipal deputy asked for the floor again.
In practice, the PCP MP who spoke before him, Modesto Navarro. The Communist MP opposes the sale of public assets to private real estate, including the sale of old public buildings by the Directorate General of the Treasury and Finance (DGTF) and the Ministry. National Defense (by the Directorate General of Armaments and Defense Infrastructures) to capitalize on the Military Retirement Fund of the Armed Forces. The decision was taken in the Council of Ministers in 2012, in the midst of the economic crisis, but that does not present any interest. The fact is that Modesto Navarro and Ricardo Robles have criticized the "logic of the alienation of the public patrimony" underlying the diploma, as it can be read in the minutes that the l & # 39; Observer consulted
of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon on March 18, 2014.
The blockista did not doubt that this strategy of the municipality reflected "the mark of government" of Passos Coelho and Paulo Portas, at the Time in power. can read in the minutes, Robles was against the alienation of state assets when it was done by Finance and Defense. We are talking about buildings that had no purpose and could have. In his speech, Ricardo Robles does not specify in which parts of this case he does not agree: if it is to turn public buildings into housing, if that is because It is the sale of public property to the private
that the municipal deputy did not show the same reservations a week later, when the social security auction discussed above began. The rest is history: at the end of the competition, the Robles brothers will eventually become the owners of former state assets.
Critics who have been addressed to Ricardo Robles in recent days do not exempt Left Friday, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes criticized, in the "Right-Left" section of the evening edition of Sic Notícias, under the attentive glance of Mariana Mortágua, the blockistas for their "moral superiority" with which they "normally" housing or real estate speculation. From the point of view of the Vice-Chairman of the CDS-PP, it is these positions that have made the BE's adviser reprehensible. "From a moral point of view," he stressed
On the other side of the table, the member did not like what he was hearing, he was defending his colleague, claiming that there had been no inconsistency in Ricardo Robles' performance and reinforcement of the words he had himself given at the time. the press conference that he had given a few hours ago. "Anyone who owns a house in Lisbon will sell it at a price higher than it was four years ago," he insisted. "The purchase of the property has not been made for speculation." In the meantime, he has reaffirmed the positions that the party has always defended over housing over the years.
However, if you shoot the film behind you can find Mariana Mortágua to speak at the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, as a colleague of Ricardo Robles, specifically criticizing the urban rehabilitation done by private. By consulting the minutes of a meeting of the AML held on May 27, 2014 the member severely criticized private investors . "We can conclude that what will happen is what we have seen up to here, which is an urban rehabilitation made by private, private, who can afford.It is a city in which one who is rich and who has money has good buildings in the right areas, and those who do not have money do not have access to rehabilitated buildings, "he said [19659007]