"I think they are already clear for all the benefits that this method can bring (...) I think this is one of those good things that can come to stay", said Fernando Medina (PS) in a video conference discussion, promoted by the National Youth Association Entrepreneurs (ANJE), on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on city life.

The mayor said that teleworking can be done in different ways, such as being adopted once a week, and stressed that, in his experience, “in many circumstances, videoconferences have proved to be as or more productive than face-to-face meetings”, saving travel time and facilitating the scheduling of meetings“ to bring together people from different backgrounds”.

Even so, Fernando Medina stressed that it is necessary to “be able to go through a teleworking experience with children at school”, admitting that the current experience is not “as perfect as that” and does not work for all workers.

In the mayor's point of view, the return to normality, after finding a vaccine or treatment for covid-19, should not be a return “on the eve of the pandemic”.

"I will say that perhaps worse than having a pandemic was leaving the pandemic with a pandemic with even higher levels of pollution and higher levels of congestion, risks to our health and a loss of quality of life even greater than that which we had before”, defended the mayor's president.

The Lisbon City Council therefore wants to “speed up the effort regarding the provision of affordable housing for young people and the middle classes”, so that more people live in the city, invest in teleworking, continue to invest in transport public, as well as “prioritize all the action in increasing the cycling network”, highlighted Medina.

“The green agenda is a great asset for us to get out of this pandemic situation better”, he stressed.