Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa on Saturday inaugurated the Dunes Walk which unites Quarteira and Vilamoura, a project that he called "symbolic on several levels."
The PM said the new walkway showed the sort of effort put in to developing the Algarve’s natural resources and environment.
António Costa next went to Loulé to be met by protests on several fronts, demolitions on the Ria Formosa islands, oil and gas exploration, and tolls on the Via do Infante.
Organisations represented included ASMAA Algarve Surf & Marine Activities Association; Tavira Em Transição; Não ao fracking - Preservar Aljezur; Je Suis Ilheu: MALP - Movimento Algarve Livre de Petróleo; PALP; Grupo Anti-fracking Vila do Bispo, Climáximo, BIZI (France), and Anti-Portagens na A22.
More than 400 demonstrators made their points loud and clear and to his credit, António Costa met representatives from the Ria Formosa islands and from the anti-oil lobby but made no subsequent statements to the media.
Island anti-demolitions campaigner, Feliciano Júlio said he was happy with his meeting with the PM and left with a promise from Costa that the government will promote negotiations with the islands’ residents and there will be no more demolitions for the time being, at least until after the summer.
During this period, there will be an evaluation and a study on the houses in so-called areas of risk in each island village. This plan will establish those properties that must be removed and the remainder can start to be licenced.
José Lézinho from the Hangars Residents Association said that he asked the PM for 'dialogue with the people affected, something which did not exist in the previous government."
The Platform for the Algarve Free of Oil (PALP) delivered a document containing arguments against oil exploration and called for the exploration contracts on land and at sea to be torn up.
Laurinda Seabra, from the environmental association ASMAA, always at the forefront of activism in the fight to stop oil and gas exploration in the Algarve, delivered a document to the Prime Minister containing hundreds of comments and observations from Algarve residents who are deeply concerned at the government’s oil and gas development plans.
On May 30th, ASMAA is to distribute 250,000 petition leaflets to shops and homes to give an opportunity for all the region’s residents to comment on oil and gas exploration and extraction plans for the Algarve.
Having met representatives of the protest groups, António Costa as general secretary of the Socialist Party finally got to address the party meeting.
