The PCP demands that the Government proceed with the requalification works of the EN125, between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António, instead of "continuing to postpone the problem", and that it does not accept what it considers to be the "blackmail" of the Rotas concessionaire of the Algarve Coast (RAL).
In a press release, the Algarve Local Organization Directorate (Doral) criticized not only the delay in carrying out the intervention, which it considers essential, but also the entire process surrounding it, namely the Public Private Partnership created in 2009 for do the work, which is at the center of a legal war.
The communists' taking a public position follows a decision by the Arbitration Court, taken at the end of March, which ordered the public company Infraestruturas de Portugal «to pay, immediately, more than 30 million euros to the RAL concessionaire (which has Elevo, Conduril and Tecnovia as shareholders), plus a monthly amount of almost 1,2 million euros until the main cause is decided».
"This decision of the Arbitration Court, only possible on the basis of laws and contracts - under the responsibility of PS, PSD and CDS - which protect the interests of private economic groups rather than national ones, arises from the challenge by RAL of the renegotiation process of the concession contract made during the PSD/CDS Government and decisions of the Court of Auditors, as well as the attitude of submission of the PS Government, which has not only given in to RAL's blackmail, but continues to leave the Algarve without the work it needs », accused the PCP.
"In addition, the procession is still in the forecourt, as the RAL, in addition to everything it has already received, is still claiming another 445 million euros from the State", he stressed.
For the Algarve communists, “it is important to learn the lesson right away and abolish Public Private Partnerships as an investment option, which have sucked and are draining important public resources from the country, as is also seen in Via do Infante and in the collection of tolls'.
On the other hand, this party defended that «the Portuguese State and its sovereign organs cannot accept the performance of the EN 125 private concessionaire, which wants to receive hundreds of millions of euros without carrying out the work that was contracted».
The PCP also demands that the PS Government “takes on the urgent need to resume the requalification of the EN125 – whose safety conditions have worsened in recent years – overcoming the current problem and mobilizing the necessary instruments for its implementation”.
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