On the day that a 20-year-old driver died in a head-on collision with a lorry, blocking the EN125 at Vale d’Eguas, Almancil for five hours yesterday, (see picture below) the Prime Minister speaking at the Algarve Tourist Board's 45th anniversary bash, avoided such topics as the EN125 accident rate, tolls on the motorway, VAT on restaurant meals, the Ria Formosa evictions any anything else of regional importance.
In a display of willful disobedience the head of the tourist board Desidério Silva did mention these topics, clearly still miffed from having his tourism budget cut despite the fun and success he had had in spending the 2014 allocation.
At the Hotel Ria Park in Vale de Lobo, Pedro Passos Coelho was meant to be speaking about regional tourism and the regional tourist board’s 45th year but thought it appropriate to launch into a party political broadcast to try and convince the audience of his splendid record of achievements.
The Prime Minister outlined his conviction that the economic situation in the country somehow had improved during his tenure. Remembering accurately which region he was in, Pedro Passos Coelho did recall an old promise to build a hospital in the Algarve and assured the audience that this will be built, sometime.
Well out of earshot of the protestors at the hotel entrance whom he had swept past, the Prime Minister addressed a carefully selected audience of businesspeople, heads of public bodies and academic heads from the region.
The PM's report outlined the progress that had been achieved in the Algarve’s health sector and talked of a fairytale world of a record number of operations and healthy investment, omitting the facts that there are few doctors left in the regional service run by the autocratic Pedro Nunes and the debt reduction in the health service had been at the expense of clinical spending.
Passos Coelho entered the dangerous area of ‘sustainable development,’ (dangerous as nobody in power knows what it means but it sounds good) the irony not lost on the audience as the Ria Formosa islanders stood in the rain outside protesting about being made homeless to make way for uncluttered tourist beaches.
There also were protestors from CUVI, the anti tolls group, on the day that yet another driver had died on the dangerous and overcrowded EN125 which was promised a €200 million upgrade but this had evaporated as soon as the tolls werre installed on the motorway.
Desidério Silva ciommanded the stage and let hisb opinions clear in a speech that included no-go topics such as the “devaluation that the Algarve has suffered over the years as it had lacked 'investment proportionate to the region."
The delay in upgrading the EN125 was another issue and the lack of any sort of study at all into the impact felt in the local economy by the toll scheme on the Via do Infante.
Silva also wondered when the investment promises for the railway system and the Algarve’s ports would be kept as zero has happened so far despite the political trumpeting of these vague throughts as achievements.
The reduction of the regional tourist board’s budget and the costs of doing business were addresses as was the increase in VAT to 23% for restaurant meals and on rounds of golf.
"We must look at tourism with fresh eyes and value the sector and the Algarve," said Desidério Silva in his best and most political speech since leaving Albufeira council under a cloud of debt.
Passos Coelho failed to answer any of the valid, pressing and pertinent points raised by the birthday boy, preferring to emphasise growth in the tourism sector and its importance to the trade balance and increasing exports. Even though the region represent "a significant part" of the country’s tourism industry, the government “must invest in tourism beyond the Algarve.”
After the speeches Desidério Silva was magnanimous in his victory and overlooked the fact that he had received zero response to his challenges. He said that he believes that Passos Coelho got the drift and that these issues will be discussed by members of the Government, although we all know he does not believe this for a minute.
"I'm sure my speech did not fall on deaf ears, because there was an acknowledgment by the Prime Minister of the weight that the Algarve has in the tourism sector," concluded Silva, knowing that as the Prime Minster retreats to Lisbon to prepare for his election battle, the Algarve and its problems again will become a distant memory.
For the new 45 years in the Algarve video, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fizq4BeeJik#t=36
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