To peace and bread, the people of the Algarve would add exactly the same priorities that Sérgio Godinho immortalized in the song “Liberdade”, released in the year of the Revolution: housing, health and education. Two days before Legislative Elections marked by uncertainty, these are the three priority areas in which, according to five Algarve residents, a future executive should focus.
On Sunday, the Portuguese will be called to the polls again, after the last Legislative elections of 2022 in which the PS won an absolute majority.
The scenario is marked by unpredictability: on the right, the growth of Chega – and with the guarantee, from Luís Montenegro, that there will be no understandings with André Ventura's party – seems to make a stable majority solution unfeasible.
On the left, the latest polls show that the number of deputies may be insufficient to repeat the contraption of 2015 that brought together PS, Bloco de Esquerda, PCP and Verdes – with Pedro Nuno Santos, current general secretary of the PS, being, at the time, one of the main faces of this government solution.
And now? What will Portuguese political life be like post-March 10?
Despite the uncertainty, the Sul Informação went to speak to five people from the Algarve: a student worker, a nurse, a teacher, a pensioner and a cultural professional.
The motto of the five conversations was the same: what do the people of the Algarve want from a future Government?
Despite the different origins, there are several points of contact between the responses: housing, health and education are the areas in which the executive – led by whoever it may be – must focus on.
Ricardo Teixeira is 24 years old and is a student worker.
Attending the Professional Higher Technical Course in Executive Secretariat, at the University of Algarve, and cashier at Auchan, in Faro, asks this future Government "to be more concerned with providing comfort and security for young people, without us having the need or even the thought of emigrating in search of better living conditions."
Added to this is an «appreciation in the area of health, particularly its professionals», as well as a proposal for higher education, defended by this university student.
“I think there should be more openness to remote learning so that young people can build their future as they work and study,” he tells our newspaper.
Housing is also highlighted by Ricardo Teixeira, who calls for “a brake on the increase in rents”. «The lack of housing must be resolved, as everything is very focused on luxury and tourism», he adds.
With a working life dedicated to tourism, Ângela Pestana is 70 years old and has been retired for three years, despite maintaining her bicycle rental business, in Monte Gordo.
«If I had managed my company the way they [politicians] manage the country, I would have gone bankrupt», he says at the beginning of the conversation.
For Ângela, the priorities are well defined: «zero corruption, better NHS, fewer waits in emergency rooms and better conditions for young people».
«I don't have a family doctor and I also think it's important to improve the Hospital de Faro with more professionals. I've been waiting for a specialist appointment for over three years", he laments to the Sul Informação.
Ângela Pestana also highlights the need for “more housing”, giving the example of her daughter – a doctoral fellow – “who studies her whole life to live miserably”.
Still, this retired woman is afraid that “nothing will be done as promised”.
For Ana Paula Sousa, 62 years old, Portuguese teacher, the great fear is that we will enter into “a solution of ungovernability” post-elections.
As expected, he wishes, as a teacher, that «the next Government finally restores teachers' service time».
«As we know, teachers who were integrated into the career in 2005, before the first freeze, had 9 years, 4 months and two days of service time frozen. The Government, in 2018, returned 30% – 2 years, 9 months and 18 days. Therefore, there are 6 years, 6 months and 23 days left of time that remains frozen », he explains.
Furthermore, the teacher from the D. Dinis School Group, in Quarteira, asks a future executive to, «for the sake of our students, be able to solve the problem of the lack of teachers».
Focusing attention on the Algarve, Ana Paula Sousa says that the issue of lack of water “should have been resolved a long time ago”.
«Reserves are not eternal, on the contrary. Therefore, sooner or later, we would face this constraint, so a solution should have been planned and thought out. We can't just try to solve these types of problems when we already find ourselves in a limit situation", he argues.
Like Ângela Pestana and Ricardo Teixeira, the Portuguese teacher also points to the “lack of housing” as a “serious problem” and “priority”.
«Those that appear have exorbitant prices or rents. Once again, it is our governments who must present solutions, we vote for them, believing that this will happen", she says.
In the last legislature, along with teachers, nurses were one of the professions that most spoke out against the Government's measures.
In conversation with Sul Informação, Inês Ventura, nurse at the Hospital de Faro, does not deny that one of the main demands he has for a future Government is to “improve access to public health”.
«There are many specialties missing and vital services that close for consecutive days, such as pediatric emergencies. Health management is terrible, we have regular doctors earning the same amount in a weekend as a house doctor earns in a month. Is this normal?” asks the professional from the neonatal and pediatric intensive care service at Hospital de Faro.
Therefore, what he asks for, despite assuming that it may “seem like a cliché”, is really a “decrease in taxes and increase in salaries”.
«I'm a nurse and I have colleagues receiving 900 euros, almost the equivalent of the minimum wage... It's unsustainable, taking into account the increase in the cost of living that has been felt in recent times», he considers.
João de Brito, 40 years old, actor, director of LAMA, a theater structure of Faro, adds a new point: for him, «putting an end to tolls on Via do Infante» should be one of the priorities of the future Government, as well as «resolving the drought situation».
«I would like to have a Government that would restructure the country from the bottom up. Identify the social problems that exist and not just identify them, but resolve them with justice and dignity. There are structural problems in education, health, security, culture, housing. It's the order of the day. It all comes down to a lack of planning that leads to widespread disorganization and bureaucracy,” he considers.
For João de Brito, there are several urgent points: the defense of culture, the NHS and the need to “stop real estate speculation”.
«It is urgent to give hope to young people so that they can build their professional careers in their country of origin. There are many issues that I would like to see resolved by the next executive, but, above all, I hope for dialogue and that the new Government has the capacity to listen to the opposition and reach consensus so that together (as it should be) they can resolve the catastrophic situation. that we crossed”, he adds.
With knowledge in the area, João de Brito also asks a future Government to realize «that the artistic community has grown a lot in recent years in the Algarve, from theater to music, including dance, plastic arts and video, and try to follow this evolution so that there is no setback and with that we are forced to head to the big centers».
Now, the ball is in the court of the people of the Algarve who go to the polls on Sunday.
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