PS has set three key priorities for the region
The Socialist Party (PS) has named health, drought and housing as the three key priorities that need to be addressed in the Algarve.
So said Jamila Madeira, the head of the party’s campaign for the Faro district, at a PS rally held at the auditorium of the Hotel and Tourism School in Faro on Tuesday (February 20), attended by the party’s secretary-general and prime minister hopeful Pedro Nuno Santos.
“Health is, was and will always be our first priority. Without health there is no dignity, no freedom, and no capacity to produce and grow a region,” Jamila Madeira said.
The former deputy secretary of state for health added that the project for a new Central Hospital in the Algarve has a “tough road” ahead but promised that “this important investment will happen in our region”.
Switching the focus onto the region’s severe drought situation, Madeira stressed that the European ‘bazooka’ (Recovery and Resilience Plan) has €237 million set aside for improving water efficiency in Portugal. For the Algarve, she highlighted the controversial plan to build a desalination plant in Albufeira, the collection of water from the Guadiana River at Pomarão, and the possibility of a third dam on the Foupana stream, “among many other solutions that are underway.”
Regarding housing, Jamila Madeira defended further investment in public housing, saying that only with a “strong public housing stock” can affordable housing be provided.
She also reiterated PS’ promise to abolish the A22 motorway tolls as soon as they win the election,and highlighted some of the region’s ongoing projects, such as the electrification of the region’s railway and the development of the Metrobus project to link Olhão, Faro and Loulé.
“What the opposition has presented is zero. We had a debate between all political forces and not one presented alternatives,” Madeira added.
