The recently empowered Portuguese Communist Party has put forward a draft resolution to end once and for all the social injustice and predation being imposed on the Ria Formosa islanders in the Algarve.
The Communists are presenting a resolution to parliament which demands recognition of the social, economic and cultural value of the villages on the Ria Formosa islands and for an end to the demolition of houses by the out-of-control, state controlled Polis Litoral Ria Formosa company whose actions to date have caused outrage locally, nationally and internationally as it's contractors have demolished properties owned in many cases by generations of the same family.
The Communists have recommend to the government that it recognises the islanders have a right to be where they are and that the villages are included in the ‘Coastal Zone Management Plan for Vila Real de Santo António to Vilamoura’, the key document that could legitimise the island homes
The resolution also asks the Socialist government to adopt those measures necessary for the preservation of the existing island communities and to confirm the abandonment of the state-sponsored demolition programme that plans to bulldoze over 800 properties, then those remaining and then yet more on the island of Armona that until now has remained outside the Polis destruction zone.
The Communist document goes further and recommends the upgrading of urban and beach areas, while "improving the living conditions of the communities and ensuring the right of enjoyment of these spaces by local people and tourists visiting the area."
The Communists want the government to support the economic activities in the Ria Formosa and "implement a policy of promoting fisheries and the production and harvesting of bivalves which enhances job creation, the development of an industry, respect for the environment and the improvement of living conditions of workers and island populations."
During the previous coalition government, under Pedro Passos Coelho, two similar draft resolutions were voted on and rejected and the demolition programme, referred to by observers as 'social engineering' was only halted by an injunction granted to protect a fortunate and rare species of chameleon.
But there now is renewed hope that the persecution of these islanders will end, as "the new composition of Parliament after the general election in October, with a majority of MPs from the Socialist Party and left wing allies, opens the possibility of halting the demolitions on the Ria Formosa islands and recognising the social, economic and cultural value of these villages," concludes the Communist’s statement.
