The petition raised by the Algarve Without Tolls organisation has been rejected by the government and will not be debated in parliament.
The 6,500 signature petition against the continuation of tolls on the Via do Infante motorway was kicked out by the parliamentary commission for Economic and Public Works on the grounds that a case "has already been debated following the exercise of the right of petition."
The recently created movement said that its fight will continue using more radical methods.
The movement held a press conference to state that the rejection of its petition reveals a 'clear contempt not only for the Algarve, but for all those who in one way or another have voiced their opinion against tolls on the Via do Infante.'
The movement admits ‘it is true that the tolls on the Via do Infante already has been the subject of a petition in June 2013,’ but states that 'the current petition was based not on the pessimistic forecasts of the adverse effects on the lives and on the Algarve's economy, but on the daily reality of those in the region and demonstrated the costs to the region of the tolls on the Via do Infante.'
For the group, tolls ‘jeopardise already weakened businesses in the region, destroying jobs and harming many other business areas and also has social costs resulting from traffic diverting to the notorious 'road of death,' the EN125 which has cost too many lives and which is not, has never been, and never will be an alternative to the Via do Infante.’
Comments
However
The a22 was funded on the basis of the EU grant system , and is now being used to line the pockets of a Spanish company instead , as well as a few Portuguese directors or ex politicians.
It is therefore up to the mayors and Algarvean politicians to highlight this fraud ,through legal representation .They should be highlighting this as an illegal taxation against the Portuguese Algarvean people against their human rights , but against the EU taxpayers themselves outside of Portugal that funded it being duped....I am sure that those countries that paid for it would like to know how they have been screwed over too.
Of course Lisboa will do nothing about petitions , thats where the corruption lays down at night.
As long as the Kingodom of the Algarve is happy to fund the lifestyle of the Lisbon elite , remaining the serfs they laughingly call them , then this is only a drop in the ocean.
But i suspect that Brussels will do nothing , without teeth Brussels is useless , and the EU is doomed because of it.
Don't you just hate them?
I do.
Not that it will make a scrap of difference of course.
It never does, does it?
Aveiro Council has taken the Portuguese Government to the European Court on this issue, and as far as I know, Aveiro has won (ADN 13 Feb). But this win has made not a scrap of difference to this inert and boneheaded government. If there are any fines to pay to the EU they will pay them, no sorry, the taxpayer will pay them, as well as the tolls.
For the motorway using taxpayer, it is tails I lose, and heads you win.
Why don´t all the toll objectors get together, wherever they are in Portugal?