Ana Poeta, 42 years old, lives in Loulé where she is a municipal deputy. She is an adult education technician in local development projects, namely on the Mediterranean diet and sustainable food, being also trained in Socio-Educational Animation and Master in Adult Education and Local Development.
It is also the head-of-list of the People, Animals, Nature PAN to the 30 January Legislative Elections, by the Algarve circle.
With this interview, the series of interviews that the Sul Informação is publishing, with all the heads of the list of all the political forces that are candidates for the constituency of the district of Faro.
To all, and in a logic of equal opportunities, the same questionnaire with 12 questions was sent, in a timely manner.
The answers are, of course, diverse, as will become clear over the next few days, with the publication of all the interviews.
Sul Informação – What are the priorities of your political force for the next legislature for the Algarve?
Ana Poeta – The priority is to recover from four intense crises: health, social, economic and environmental.
Defend the health system, press for the construction of the Central Hospital of the Algarve, and for the recovery and expansion of health centers and the hiring of family doctors.
Even before the pandemic that the hospital in Faro faced difficulties. With the fight against the pandemic, the few existing resources were allocated to other functions, leaving specialty consultations, treatments and surgeries even more fragile.
Health professionals began to have much more responsibility, with less rest time and in an even smaller number, as a result of isolation or mirror work.
Regarding mobility, there is a consensus that the EN125 is not an option; Currently, it is degraded in many points, obsolete and incapable of allowing a fluid flow of automobiles without presenting constraints.
The public transport network urges greater amplitude to allow the demand for housing to advance further inland, which, in turn, is one of the solutions for the desertification of the interior.
The railroad, the elimination of toll payments on Via do Infante and the upgrading of the EN125 are also tools for social cohesion and social equity.
Housing has reached dramatic proportions: the difficulties in finding a house to rent or buy are immense.
The prices are unaffordable for most of us, more than half of the housing stock is destined for tourism and many of the tenants are evicted in high season so that landlords can “enjoy” tourism.
Housing management and property market price speculation has to be selected: we need decent, affordable houses with long-term contracts
Allied to these vulnerabilities, we still have the issue of the climate emergency. We are using resources to the extreme, allowing poor water management, poor management of agriculture and soils and, consequently, pawning the future of our children and ours, due to the failure to comply with the guidelines of the Intermunicipal Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change. .
It is also important to mention that it is crucial to put animal protection on the political agenda: practically all of us have or know someone with animals at home, with difficulties in paying veterinary expenses, for example.
Either we know someone who takes care of stray animals, or we know of a place where animals are in bad condition. Let's see, for example, the complaints made by tourists regarding equidae that are close to roads in poor physical condition.
SI – What led you to accept being the head of the list for the party or political force you represent?
AP – Every day, I am inspired to make the world better, by those who cross paths with me, by those who, in anonymity, make a difference.
Not being perfect, neither better nor worse than the other candidates, I am different in the causes, because I do not foresee a sustainable future that is not built on the basis of respect and equity of the three fundamental pillars: People, Animals and Nature.
We have a different candidacy, because we want to break, once and for all, with the current models based on a productivist, extractive economy and unbridled consumption, economic and consumption.
The future depends on us, what we do today.
I believe in the PAN values and mission, I believe in the resilience of the Algarve, because the causes I defend are not merely theoretical ideas, nor am I just another candidacy.
In 2005, I chose the Algarve to start over and I went through all the difficulties described above: I had precarious jobs, with maximum working hours and minimum wages, I had to travel 400 kilometers to be able to undergo medical exams, I had difficulty finding a nursery or day care center for the my son, I had trouble finding a house to live in.
I've already resorted to food bank, I've failed to pay for electricity, I've had a company that went bankrupt.
I felt in my skin what most people from the Algarve feel. I know the difficulties and I am focused on achieving the best for the Algarve and for the Algarve. We deserve more! More hospitals, more quality of life, more health.
SI – What are the expectations and objectives of your political force in relation to these Legislative Elections?
AP – The expectation of the PAN is to elect 1 deputy for the Algarve, guaranteeing the defense of the interests of the Algarve.
We are working to maintain the number of voters in the last legislative elections, at the same time we seek to sensitize new voters to the causes we defend.
SI – What remains to be done in the Algarve?
AP – There are countless problems faced by the Algarve until now: the hospital in Faro it has already exceeded its limit of dignity, both for users and for health professionals, in fact, if it weren't for their resilience, we would be worse off.
The EN125, which is not an option either for the Algarve or for companies, does not present conditions that guarantee the safety of drivers and pedestrians.
There is no public transport with timetables and routes compatible with work or student needs.
There is the challenge of drought, even more so when we continue to mismanage water and allow its excessive use, an example of irrigated monocultures in rainfed areas.
It is also urgent to carry out municipal campaigns to identify stray animals: colony control and a solution for the packs (there is no adequate solution in the Algarve). It can go through the guarantee of construction of adequate CRO and sterilization and adoption campaigns.
SI – Health is a deficit sector in the Algarve and in the country. What measures do you recommend to solve the health problems in the Algarve?
AP – Health problems have to be resolved on two levels. At the first level are the Primary Health Care (Health Centers), where the scarcity of human resources, due to the lack of incentives to attract clinicians to the SNS, forces family doctors to have an average of around 1500 users.
With the fight against the Pandemic and the relocation of doctors responding to clinical surveillance at vaccination centers or consultations at Respiratory Patients Care Centers (ADR), all the work of prevention, health surveillance of vulnerable groups and Groups of risk.
At the hospital level, the issue of scarcity of resources is also notorious, due to the loss of professionals and human resources – doctors and nurses – largely due to the unfair way in which the State hires them to provide work in emergency services.
Under current regulations, in emergency services, specialist doctors in the hospital staff, often with more training and greater responsibilities in patient follow-up, receive much less than working doctors hired from service providers.
For users, the damage is overwhelming: patients accumulated in the corridors on stretchers, loss of specialist services: for example, dermatology or pediatrics.
And arriving at the hospital often with irreparable damage to their health, largely due to the lack of primary care and diagnosis of pathologies that should have been detected in health centers.
It is urgent to restore their training capacity to the services, allowing medical students to remain in the Algarve for their internships.
It is also necessary to solve the problem of lack of housing, so that doctors and their families can settle and settle in the region.
It is a real problem that these professionals face, as there are no houses available for rent, and, for the few that are found, rents with prohibitive values are requested.
SI – And what about Hospital Central do Algarve? When should you move forward and why?
AP – Hospital Central do Algarve should move forward as soon as possible. Return dignity to healthcare professionals, patients and their families and allow medical students to remain in the region.
SI – The previous government advanced with the Decentralization of Competences to the Municipalities. What balance do you make of this process?
AP – The decentralization of competences is a more personalized local development tool, as it allows some proximity policies to be designed and implemented more efficiently.
It is important to mention that it is necessary to guarantee the necessary funds for the correct execution of these new responsibilities for the municipalities, something that is not always the case.
SI – Should a future government move forward with Regionalization? Why or why not?
AP – For the PAN, an organization of the State capable of responding to the challenges of the XNUMXst century, based on credible and transparent public administration, is essential, and there is still no real intermediate level of power based on the creation of administrative regions, in fact , already provided for in the Constitution for decades.
The PAN will not oppose regionalization, if that is the intention of the majority of Portuguese people, heard by referendum.
But this referendum implies a campaign to demystify and share credible information, without any political color.
We defend the broad debate on Regionalization that involves public administration, academia and civil society, in order to carry out a constitutional review, without giving up the holding of a national referendum, ensuring that regionalization takes place in a favorable case.
SI – In the Assembly of the Republic, there have been resolutions to end tolls on Via do Infante or, at least, to introduce significant discounts. What do you think about this topic and what solutions do you recommend?
AP – Via do Infante was built with the aim of serving the population, tourist demand and the regional economy. It was intended to be a quick circulation route at the service of local development and not the financial development of public-private partnerships.
Tolls represent an assault and an obstacle to the mobility of people and goods.
There are no alternatives: we don't have a public transport network, we don't have an efficient national road and we are hijacked by policies that in no way favor the flow of traffic and the decongestion of the EN125.
SI – At the beginning of the current pandemic crisis, the Government announced a specific plan for the Algarve, which never came to fruition. What does Algarve Tourism need to recover from the pandemic?
AP – The promotion of tourism must be considered and new activities created – for example, ecotourism, rural tourism and experience tourism, which bring a more informed public, which values nature and does not contribute to its destruction, as happens with mass tourism.
The development of the region must be articulated between the potential and the needs of the Algarve, promoting sustainable economic growth that allows the improvement of the population's living conditions.
Diversifying the economic structure, maximizing the use of endogenous resources, without destroying or depleting them, reducing seasonality in the main economic activities or professional retraining are some strategies that can increase tourist demand in winter.
We will have to invest in infrastructure in the interior, provide for the maintenance of workers in their places of residence and create the necessary conditions for the use of our potential through the interiorization of tourism.
SI – In the case of more fractious issues, such as regionalization, tolls on Via do Infante and health, among others, if you are elected, will you vote for the AR according to your conviction, even if it goes against the guidelines of your party?
AP – PAN values and mission are part of my values and mission.
Therefore, I am fully convinced that the party I represent will in no way harm the local and sustainable development of the Algarve and will support me and the Algarve people.
The causes that I defend are the causes that my party defends.
SI – Do you want to add any more topics or questions?
AP – I would like to point out that the PAN is a political party with a different and disruptive vision in relation to other parties and society in general.
The PAN has a holistic view of life, it is the only non-anthropocentrist party, it is an eco-progressive party and one of the few truly ecological parties, it is the only one that defends other forms of animal life, in a serious, transversal and honest way.
PAN relies on science, whenever possible, to support all its proposals.
Comments