THE LIVRE advocates the debate and a referendum on the implementation of administrative regions in time for the 2021 municipal elections.On 19 and 20 February 2020, the procedures and the timetable for the implementation of administrative regions will be discussed and voted on in the Assembly of the Republic, from Draft Resolution No.

220/XIV/1st of the parliamentary group of the Left Bloc and no. 148/XIV/1of the parliamentary group of the Communist Party Portuguese.The implementation of administrative regions is a cohesion project, national equity and development that creates an intermediate level of state administration, fulfilling the constitutionally established in 1976. It means an institutional, representative and procedural approximation of the State to the populations, aiming at the inclusion of citizens, organizations and movements in local, regional and national transformations.  In the face of such serious and emerging problems, such as the climate crisis and the deep social and territorial asymmetries, it is essential to correct the democratic deficit that determines a lack of adaptation of public policies to the problems and potentialities of each region. This is a decentralization process that cannot be confused with the transfer of powers from the central state to municipalities, initiated in the previous legislature on a PS/PSD agreement, or with the creation of political-administrative regions such as the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores. LIVRE argues that the process of implementing administrative regions in Mainland Portugal must be preceded by broad public debate and legitimacy through a referendum, as proposed in the electoral programme to Legislative 2019,Liberating the Future – A just society on a healthy planetIt is necessary to legitimize by universal suffrage the regional scale in political decisions, processes of public participation and in the scrutiny of democratic practices. The institutionalization of regions and their operationalization are fundamental to improve the performance of the State in several areas. In this regard, THE FREE-seeped most of the findings of the Independent Commission's report on Decentralisation, especially when it recognises that:"Voiceless and unrecognised regions will not be able to make themselves heard, influence decisions on aspects that concern them and essential for their future, to ensure coherence between, on the one hand, their decisions and initiatives and, on the other hand, the processes led by abroad. This voice and recognition will only be possible if based on politically legitimized decisions." The current left-wing majority in the Assembly of the Republic, which is said in favor of the implementation of administrative regions, has a decisive moment in the next parliamentary debate, after decades of hesitations and setbacks, to position itself on this structuring issue for the country and portuguese society. It is essential that we start the necessary debate for the implementation of administrative regions through an enlightening, endorsed and finally suffragette process at the time of the 2021 municipal elections.