“Monchique has a strategic investment in the forest, seen not only as a primary production, but also as a support for quality tourism throughout the year”, stressed Rui André, Mayor of Monchique, in his speech to take over. possession, last Friday night.
“Our economic activity depends, to a great extent, on the forest, hence all the work we have been doing in recent years, in some cases unprecedented, with firefighters, the army, hunter associations and Aspaflobal. But we need to do even more in the Portuguese forest», defended the social-democratic mayor.
Therefore, underlined Rui André, returning to a topic that he has already addressed on other occasions, “we want more skills in the area of land management, especially in the forest”.
At the ceremony, which took place in the tiny and crowded main hall of Monchique City Hall on the 20th, Rui André was sworn in for his third and last term at the head of this municipality, as well as councilors: Arminda Andrez and José Chaparro (new member from the council), all from the PSD, and also Paulo Alves and Humberto Sério (also news), from the PS.
In the Municipal Assembly, the elections of October 1st gave six municipal deputies to the PSD and as many to the PS, whose vote rose significantly, as well as two seats for the group of «Citizens for Monchique» and one for the CDU . Now, taking into account that the Socialists also won two Parish Councils (Alferce, with José Pereira, and Monchique, with José Gonçalo Nobre), against only one of the Social Democrats (Marmelete, with Marta Martins), this meant that the PS got an advantage.
And it ended up being a socialist (Carlos Almeida, president of the local PS Council) to be elected to the presidency of the Municipal Assembly, accompanied by Ana Cristina Nunes (1st secretary) and Sílvia Duarte da Silva (2nd secretary).
With a Municipal Assembly that could be hostile to him, for the second time in three terms (the first was in 2009/2013), Rui André used his speech to appeal for "consensus" and "work together".
This was corroborated by PS representatives. Paulo Alves, the new socialist councilor, defended that the mandate should be guided by the “existence of a constructive, educated dialogue”, to “build bridges of understanding”. It even promised “a constructive, transparent, communicative and attentive opposition”.
Returning to his projects, the re-elected mayor announced his intention to, in this term from 2017 to 2021, "reconvert, improve and recover the municipal heritage", namely the "road network", part of it "built many years ago".
He also promised to "continue to invest in the social area", with the maintenance of "social support", many of them designed to attract and secure younger families in the county, as well as continuing to invest in "social equipment", for young people and the less young. With that, he considered, "we are also indirectly creating jobs, fixing people".
In the area of Education, «we have innovative, audacious projects», he guaranteed. But, warned the mayor, “not everything is rosy: there is a need to make very important investments, in the requalification of the EB 2,3 School and the EB1 School of Marmelete”. These will be works "soon to be launched".
The mayor also pointed out that «the strategy of promoting our tourism, as the top of the Algarve, with a complementary offer to tourism on the coast, is bearing fruit». “When I arrived at the Chamber, in 2009, there was no rural tourism unit, now there are about ninety,” he said.
«We made a strategic investment in nature tourism, well-being, spiritual, in our gastronomy», he enumerated. In such a way that, next weekend, «Monchique will host a world meeting of mindfulness, which will bring here the largest tour operators in this sector», he revealed.
He also underlined the new executive's intention to encourage investment, taking advantage of «the favorable situation that is currently being experienced in the Algarve and in the country».
On the other hand, said Rui André, «Monchique is today an example for many things, he is invited at national level to show the projects he has», such as the Geriatric Plan.
In conclusion, the mayor stressed: “the sleeping mountain that we found when we arrived here today is a dynamic and active mountain”.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação
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