‘Better late than never’ – but still frustratingly late…
CUVI – the commission of Via do Infante (A22 motorway) users – has pronounced itself delighted by parliament’s approval to scrap tolls on the region’s highway – deemed illegal by the European Union over 13 years ago.
“Finally, we will have a toll-free Algarve from January 1, 2025 – which the Users’ Commission has fought so hard for”, the entity said in a statement this week. “After 14 years of struggle and 13 years of the ordeal that plagued the region”, justice has prevailed.
The statement nonetheless alludes to the “very damaging and tragic” consequences of the last 13 years: “thousands of road accidents that have occurred on the EN125, one of the most dangerous roads in the country, nicknamed the road of death”; the fact that “mobility in the region has regressed by more than 20 years and economic, social and territorial inequalities have worsened”.
These bitter years in which government’s persisted in sanctioning tolls have seen the Algarve lose economic competitiveness in relation to neighbouring Andalusia, recalls CUVI: “many companies have gone bankrupt and unemployment has risen; many users, unable to pay tolls, have been subjected to hellish traffic for hours on end on the EN125; others have seen their meagre incomes diminished by the tolls; the concessionaire, through a ruinous public-private partnership with the State, has seen its pockets fill with tens of millions of euros at the cost of taxpayers”.
CUVI does not forgive these years of frustration – with six governments ignoring the acknowledgement in 2012 by the European Commission that the tolls are illegal.
“The main culprits behind all this tragedy have been PS (Socialists) and PSD (social democrats”, says the statement. “It is well known that António Costa promised in 2015 to end tolls in the Algarve, but he left and never fulfilled his promise…”
The tolls became an ‘election issue’ in March, and have since become one of the measures ‘pushed through’ by opposition parties, again contrary to the wishes of the government of the day.
All that is left to ensure their extinction is President Marcelo’s rubber stamp, and publication of the relevant dispatch in Diário da República.
The ‘downside’ to this triumph, CUVI concedes, is that tolls will remain in place until the end of the year.
Thanking everyone who has played a part in opposing these tolls, CUVI suggests a celebration ‘honking of horns’ by drivers throughout the Via do Infante on January 1.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
