In another sad day for the fight to abolish motorway tolls on the A22 Via do Infante, PSP police were called to evacuate a handful of protesters demonstrating in the galleries of the Parliament in Lisbon.
Shouting “The Algarve will not pay! The struggle continues!”, members of CUVI, the civic movement against tolls, were protesting over the block vote by coalition politicians and the Socialist party against motions proposed by Left Bloc and PCP members to lift the tolls that they claim have helped cripple the region.
Left-wingers have been faithful allies in CUVI’s fight to rid the Algarve of the unpopular tolls.
A 14,000-strong petition calling for an end to the unpopular system was also presented but to no avail. Coalition members, as well as the Socialists, remained steadfast in their refusal to countenance leniency of any kind.
Only days before, the hopes of CUVI president João Vasconcelos had been high. “The damage is more than clear,” he said. “Unemployment is catastrophic in the Algarve with around 100,000 out of work, and tolls have greatly contributed to this. The traffic on the EN125 is terrible and the only reason there are not more accidents is the general lack of traffic caused by the economic downturn.
“Let’s see what happens in the Assembleia (Parliament),” he concluded.
CUVI will now be regrouping and considering what, if anything, remains to be done.
