Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, also leader of the PSD political party, announced yesterday that the construction plans for the Algarve Central Hospital will be launched by early October and represent an investment of €800 million.
At the traditional Festa do Pontal, on Quarteira seafront in Loulé, which marks the PSD’s ‘comeback’ from their summer holidays, Luís Montenegro said that the work, which will be carried out under a public-private partnership, should begin in early 2027 and be completed in 2030.
“By early October at the latest, we will launch the international tender for the construction of the Algarve Central Hospital under a public-private partnership,” he said.
This procedure will allow, “with all the subsequent steps, for the start of construction to correspond, more or less, to the beginning of 2027 and for the hospital to become operational in 2030”.
“We are talking about an investment of €800 million,” he repeated.
Luís Montenegro also announced that water efficiency in the Algarve remains a concern for the government and said that it had “already secured” funding for the construction of the Alportel and Foupana dams.
This will be the largest investment ever made in the Algarve region, “part of a strategy” that the government has for the entire country to manage water, a resource that “exists in sufficient quantities” in Portugal. “We have water, and we are improving our capacity to manage and store it,” he said.
According to Montenegro, the government is ensuring that, by 2050, the “largest investment ever will be made to ensure everyone has water, whether for domestic supply or all economic activities, particularly agriculture”.
The PM also said that the Algarve – a region that previous governments have overlooked – will receive investment to stimulate economic activity in the region. He then cited the MotoGP motorcycle racing grand prix ‘secured for 2025 and 2026’, adding that “everything is ready to formalise the return of Formula 1 motor racing to the Algarve in 2027”.
“These events involve some financial effort on the part of the government, and they deliver a direct and indirect return in terms of promotion that is, quite frankly, well worth it,” he told his audience.
Algarve populations have been assured of the ‘importance and necessity’ of a new Algarve Central Hospital for decades.
Unsurprisingly, news outlets picking up on the PM’s annoucement of the hospital/ the return of Formula 1, have elicited some tough retorts. Thousands of comments over social media show the strength of feeling against this administration that outlines a ‘promising future’, when the present for so many communities has become a living nightmare.
“The country is burning , but they hold a party promising everything and more that they will never deliver. The lack of shame of this bunch is unbelievable”, wrote one reader of SIC’s story “Luís Montenegro promises the new Central Hospital and return of Formula 1 to the Algarve”. Others point out the fact that the country’s health service is riddled with hospital department closures due to lack of staff: “where will the staff come from?” for a whole new hospital.
Even a month ago, the political ‘comeback’ of the PS Socialist party was being predicted as an impossibility “for years” due to the pasting the party received in the legislative elections in May. Now, in the face of such tonal deafness and apparent lack of empathy for what is going on ‘up north and in the centre’, the PSD/ AD coalition has seemingly lost an enormous amount of tacit support: people are dumbfounded.
They want to see political leaders visiting communities torn apart by ‘calamity’ not enjoying a party. With municipal elections coming up in October, the chances of a ‘centre right’ victory may have suddenly become considerably reduced.
Source material: Lusa/SIC Notícias
