The Via do Infante User Commission says there has been a "gross error" and it’s one that needs correcting, even after seven years of being ignored by government.
Donning yellow jackets, twenty protestors distributed leaflets to motorists against a backdrop of posters with sentiments including, "Thank you Costa! Your hands are stained with blood! "
The main spokesman for the Commission, Algarve Left Bloc MP, João Vasconcelos, said that that the tolls have aggravated road accidents in the region and that, as of 30 November this year, there were almost 9,890 accidents in the Algarve, in which 37 people died, ten more than last year.
"We are going to arrive at the end of the year with more than 10,000 accidents in the Algarve, for the third consecutive year, with many serious injuries and with many dead", mainly on the EN125, that "is not a credible alternative to the motorway."
According to João Vasconcelos, the Socialist Party and the other political parties, must unite around the abolition of tolls in the Algarve, which the Commission considered a "gross mistake," not only because of the accidents they cause but also because they strain the public purse.
"There are MPs of from the Socialist Party and Socials Democrats who come to me and say, 'You are right, we are against tolls due to the damage caused to the Algarve,” but when they go to parliament, they vote against the elimination of tolls. What's going on here?" demanded the seasoned campaigner.
Vasconcelos added that Public Private Partnerships are "the biggest economic, financial and social crime that is practiced in the Algarve and in the country," as it is very expensive, "to have private concessionaires filling their pockets at the expense of taxpayers."
According to Vasconcelos, the Via do Infante concessionaire receives €70 million a year, €40 million from the State and €30 million from tolls, all of which strikes him and many others, as "immoral and a crime."
