A pre-election row has erupted in the hillside town hall of Monchique as mayor Rui André comes under heavy fire from his Socialist Party opposition which has managed to push through a motion of censure.
The motion was approved at a meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Monchique last Thursday.
A Portuguese man living in London was stabbed to death on July 21st last year.
Bradley Quaresma was knifed at the packed West Ham Lane Recreation Ground in front of horrified families.
Portugal’s poorest familes, 140,000 of them, do not have enough money for adequate food.
Many now are reliant on the country’s food bank system, with family heads saying that their lack of income means the quantity and quality of food they have available for consumption is severly compromised.
The President of the Republic gave the Bank of Portugal governor a free pass today by blaming the state of the country’s banking system on the Troika, rather than on the country's banking regulator who failed to spot that the light at the end of tunnel was, in fact, an approaching train..
Marcelo Rebelo da Sousa (pictured left with Germany's chancellor) said the Troika should have spotted that Portugal’s banks had chronic weaknesses and really should have done something about it sooner.
The Algarve’s most active MP, Paulo Sá from the Communist Party, has asked the government what it is going to do about the appalling state of many of the region’s Finanças offices.
Sá noted the Dickensian conditions at the offices in Alcoutim, Aljezur, Castro Marim, Monchique, São Brás de Alportel and Vila do Bispo.
Jews from Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Canada, Australia, Spain, Russia, Colombia and France were awarded Portuguese nationality in 2016 under new legislation to right a wrong going back over 500 years.
More than 400 descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal received nationality, led by 271 Turks, 81 Israelis and 48 Brazilians.
Socialist Party councillors in Vila Real de Santo António continue to accuse the council's executive of embarking on a water privatisation process that will end in tears, as well as significantly higher water charges for customers.
The Social Democrat-run council wants to grant local water and waste management to a private company but the council opposition claims this would see water rates rise “50 percent over the next seven years."
The government signed an offshore drilling licence on January 11th, allowing Galp-ENI consortium to drill for oil and gas in the Alentejo basin, while at the same time working on a range of renewable energy projects with a potential investment of over €800 million.
This is not the government’s spend, but suggested totals from the corporate sector which aims to add up to 750 megawatts in national energy capacity over the next few years.
