A month on from the tragic accident involving Lisbon’s famous Glória funicular, which left 16 dead and at least 22 injured, the families of the victims are still waiting for the formal compensation process to begin.
At 11am this Friday, 3 October, the Vascão Bridge on the EN122, linking the municipalities of Mértola (Alentejo) and Alcoutim (Algarve), will reopen to traffic, in what both mayors are calling “great news.”
Constant delays, train cancellations, ageing carriages with little comfort or hygiene, and the lack of a full connection from the west to the east, are among the grievances voiced by users of the Algarve’s railway system. Many passengers say they feel “abandoned” and forced to rely on what they describe as “a third-world service”.
It was just before noon in Portugal (2pm in Israel) this Thursday when the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared: “The Hamas-Sumud provocation is over.” By then, almost all of the boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla, en route to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid, had been intercepted and their passengers detained by Israeli authorities.
The Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) has this Wednesday opened applications for state financial support aimed at promoting animal welfare. The €14.5 million fund will be distributed across seven separate schemes, available to local councils and animal protection associations, with applications closing on 13 October.
House prices in the Algarve rose by 8.7% in September compared with the same month last year, according to the Idealista price index. The average cost of buying a home in the region now stands at €3,819 per square metre, keeping the Algarve as Portugal’s second most expensive region, behind only the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. On a quarterly basis, prices were up 2.9%.
It was an important day for the Government, marking what it called the end of “a period of irresponsible immigration policy” installed under the leadership of Antonio Costa’s Social Party (PS) government.
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said this Tuesday that shanty towns and makeshift housing estates have been re-emerging mainly in Socialist and Communist-led municipalities, insisting that Social Democrat (PSD) mayors “do not just stand by” in the face of the problem. Commentators have alleged the PM’s accusations of feeding an anti-migrant sentiment.
