Antonio Jose Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) has won Portugal’s presidential election but by an insufficient margin to avoid a second-round run-off with Andre Ventura of the far-right Chega party on 8 February.
This weekend the Algarve once again delivered a small victory to André Ventura, this time in Sunday’s presidential election, held on 18th January. The leader of the populist Chega party won in more of the region’s municipalities than the Socialist Party (PS) national frontrunner António José Seguro, who he will face in the second round of voting on 8th February.
More than 250,000 patients are expected to be covered by new privately managed health centres set to open in regions with the lowest availability of family doctors, the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) revealed on Sunday.
António José Seguro, the winner in the first round of the presidential election, said on Sunday 18th January that “democracy has prevailed” and that it “will prevail again on 8 February”, appealing to democrats, progressives, and humanists to rally behind his candidacy in order to “defeat extremism”.
Algarve Tourism has today called for a much-needed structural response to agonisingly long queues at Faro Airport, urging those responsible for the airport to invest in faster software, improiving the running of their passenger-related procedures, and reinforcing staff numbers at air border controls.
Politicians from the Left Bloc (BE) have called for an urgent parliamentary hearing with the Minister of Internal Administration over a case of alleged police violence at a police station in Rato, Lisbon, made public on Thursday, 15th January.
The Algarve Federation of Agriculture (FEDAGRI) has spoken out against the imminent trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, South America’s common market bloc, arguing that it risks undermining Portuguese agriculture, and could have particularly damaging effects in economically vulnerable interior regions such as in southern Portugal.
The Portuguese Migration Observatory (OM) has called for increased public investment and integration of migration data into local policymaking, particularly in inland municipalities experiencing rapid growth in immigrant populations, naming a responsibility “to prevent social risks”.
