CDS/Algarve wants to know what the Government intends to do to reverse the UK decision to exclude Portugal from the list of safe countries to travel, known yesterday, July 3rd.
In a statement, the CDS/Algarve speaks of a "scenario of real economic catastrophe that makes fear the worst in the months until autumn."
«More than Dr. António Costa, the Algarve and the people of the Algarve need urgent answers: what is the Portuguese Government going to do, specifically, to reverse this decision by the British Government? What concrete measures to support the region's economy will the Government apply, in order to alleviate the imminent economic and social debacle that is befalling the Algarve, its companies and its inhabitants?”, ask the centrists.
In the opinion of the CDS, this exclusion “constitutes a serious and severe blow to the economic activity of the region, which, as it is public, depends to a great extent on tourism, with the United Kingdom being the main source of tourists arriving in the Algarve every year. ».
This political party also criticizes the “wonderful narrative of the Portuguese miracle in the fight against the pandemic”, saying that the “Government of the Republic chose for burying your head in the sand, blatantly failing in diplomacy and, in a way of resignation, opted for a ridiculous speech of self-justification, in which the Government of the United Kingdom seems to be the source of all evils».
Finally, the CDS defends that «the entire region must be united in this difficult moment, it being essential that AMAL, political parties, unions, employers associations, the Tourism Region and other economic and social agents manage to gather around a “ pact of economic recovery” of the region, to be presented to the Government, which will allow to fight the long economic and social winter that is to come”.
João Fernandes, president of Turismo do Algarve, reacted yesterday in statements to the Sul Informação, to the exclusion of Portugal from the list published by the United Kingdom of countries safe to travel, considering it “particularly unfair”.
João Soares, representative of the Portuguese Hotel Association in the Algarve, told our newspaper that this exclusion “is a severe blow to the hotel industry and to all activities that are linked to tourism”.
As for Elider Viegas, from the Association of Hoteliers and Touristic Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), asked for the «revocation of the measure», considering that the Algarve is suffering consequences from the current outbreaks of infection in the Lisbon area.
Comments