“What is foreseen in the programme is that an assessment will be made of the transformation that was carried out within the scope of the CCDRs [Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development] in the last legislature and, in this context, start a dialogue that will culminate in a referendum on regionalisation, as predicted. First, an assessment of the path towards decentralization and strengthening of the CCDRs and their democratic legitimacy, and then the launch of a national debate and a referendum on regionalization”, summarized the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, at a press conference in Lisbon.

In the document, she underlines that the government “considers it essential to deepen the process of State reform, establishing a governance of proximity based on the principle of subsidiarity”.

In this sense, after the “biggest process of decentralization of competences in recent decades” and after “the democratization of the CCDRs has been implemented”, with the election of their leaders by mayors, it intends to open, “in a serene and responsible way, the debate around the regionalization process in the coming years, with the aim of holding a new referendum on the topic in 2024”.