Members of the International Platform against the continuation of tolls on the Via do Infante and their supporters met up on the Guadiana bridge on Saturday afternoon in the largest anti-tolls protest yet seen.
Over 50 vehicles from Spain and Portugal were driven in slow procession by protestors to the car park on the Portuguese side of the Guadiana bridge for speeches, expressions of solidarity and good humoured but serious discussion about the tolls and the damage they are continuing to cause to the economies in the Algarve and Andalucia.
With full police escorts the two columns of vehicles and participants departed from Vila Real de Santo António and Ayamonte in Spain, in a slow but very noisy procession late on Saturday afternoon.
Portuguese and Spanish press were present and have ensured widespread publicity in both countries.
The bodies that make up the International Platform against the tolls include the Commission of Users of the Via do Infante (CUVI) and the Left Bloc (BE) on the Portuguese side, and Izquierda Unida, and Podemos on the Spanish side.
The gathered VIPs included three Algarve mayors. Vítor Aleixo, the mayor of Loulé, spoke eloquently on the reasons he was fully in support of the movement to scrap the tolls.
The Mayor of Tavira and head of the the Algarve Mayors' Group (AMAL), Jorge Botelho, said he had decided to attend the event to mark his opposition to the tolls, whose introduction should have been hand in hand with the upgrading of the EN125.
This funding promise promptly was cancelled by the government and only now have some sporadic activities been proposed to fix the damaged secondary road and create a bypass around Faro.
Botelho said "I think that the tolls should not have been introduced, so anything we can to reduce or suspend them is positive," stressing that it is necessary to assess the negative impacts on the Algarve’s economy.
A report was promised by the government when imposing the tolls in December 2011 but over three years later, a report has failed to appear nor is one being prepared.
CUVI campaigner in chief and Portimão councillor, João Vasconcelos, said that the tolls have "caused serious economic damage to the Algarve, Ayamonte and to the Spanish province of Huelva."
Vasconcelos was delighted to welcome the Spanish protestors which emphasised that the tolls are having a detrimental affect on the Spainish as well as the Algarve’s businesses, tourists and residents.
Loulé mayor Vitor Aleixo said that we should ‘open our eyes as to what has been going on’ with the tolls which last year cost motorists €28 million on a road that was built largely with EU funds in order to help develop the Algarve’s infrastructure, and should remain free to use.
In addition to the tolls, the concession holder receives a cheque each year from the Portuguese government to make up for the inevitable drop in motorway use since the tolls were introduced.
Event organiser Michael Ferrada said he was delighetd with the turnout and the message remains the same, scrap the tolls and let the Algarve breathe again.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ9JILQHMQU
