The PSD deputies elected by the Algarve asked for an audience with the President of the Republic to "expose the serious economic and social situation" facing the region.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “has been conspicuous by its proximity to the Algarve and has a very accurate reading of the situation, when, in September of last year, he expressed that the application of a specific emergency plan for the region is a national objective”.
«It is for this purpose that we fight. Our duty of representation, and our conviction, obliges us to seek to raise the issue with the highest magistrate in the nation», say Cristóvão Norte, Rui Cristina and Ofélia Ramos, in a press release.
Algarve PSD parliamentarians recall that last July, “both Prime Minister António Costa and Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira announced that a specific plan for the region would be presented and implemented – António Costa even spoke 300 million euros - in order to contain the economic and social consequences of the pandemic'.
The crisis caused by Covid caused, «for example, annual unemployment rates whose growth varies between 60% and 200%, a record that was up to five times higher than the national average and lead to this region being one of the biggest losses. registered at European level'.
Social Democrats remember that proposed measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic in the Algarve in the Assembly of the Republic, which were approved “with votes against the PS, but in favor of the other benches”.
«However, nothing has been done and there is no program or any specific measure for the Algarve nine months after its announcement», .
“The negative discrimination to which the region is being subjected is absurd, as it does not respect equity. If this is the region that registers the most losses, it would make sense for this aspect to be considered in the set of national and European support. On the contrary: not only does it not have a short-term plan as promised, but it represents a meager 1,7% of the Recovery and Resilience Plan cake when it represents close to 5% of the population and the national economy, as there is no guidance for diversification of the economy, so that sectors other than tourism grow with a view to building a more balanced region. The Government has passed by the Algarve and neglects the time bomb of unemployment, bankruptcies and suffering that the Algarve is experiencing», conclude the PSD deputies.
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