The Mayor of Portimão, Isilda Gomes, says that every day the municipality receives requests for help, "people from one moment to the next have been deprived of their income and are knocking at the door of local government."
Gomes is very concerned about the worsening living conditions in Portimão, the council area that is the ‘champion’ for both unemployment and municipal debts.
The mayor admitted that the municipality can no longer respond to requests for help which now are daily and in most cases, "truly tragic" mainly caused by unemployment.
The jobless figure in the county show "worrying signs" and are now the highest in any Algarve council area at nearly 6,000, according to the latest government data.
"There are several warning signs that have emerged in Portimao, mainly due to the social implications of a high unemployment rate," said the mayor in a frank interview with Jornal do Algarve.
