The Socialist Party’s Environment Minister has ensured Polis Ria Formosa’s remit has been extended for another year to facilitate more property demolitions and evictions.
In a cruel blow in the face of Socialist declarations to the contrary, the Environment Minister, João Pedro Matos Fernandes said that "demolitions will not be carried out on first homes without relocation."
This paves the way for a continuation of the demolition programme despite the Left Bloc and left wing parties supporting the Ria Formosa islanders’ struggle to keep their houses and way of life.
At a general meeting of the Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society in Olhão, the proposal to extend activities for another year was carried, leaving anxious homeowners back at square one despite protest and legal actions to save their houses.
"I was hoping that attitudes could be changed, in particular for demolition on the island of Culatra, but the conviction with which I leave is that everything will continue in the same way," said the Mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, after the meeting.
Bacalhau has supported the demolitions on Faro island despite protest from his electorate. Faro island is in his council area so it is easy for Bacalhau to bemoan the Culatra demolitions without again changing his mind about Faro island.
The president of Olhão Câmara, the socialist António Pina said that he had detected a "change in attitude" in the new government, which he claims "is interested, above all, to resume dialogue with local authorities."
Pina noted there had been "a clear signal that the priority interventions for 2016 will be the reopening of channels and strengthening the dunes, and only these." "This means something and I believe that common sense will prevail."
In a letter to the mayors of Loulé, Faro, Olhão and Tavira, all minority shareholders in Polis, the Environment Minister said that “first homes would not be affected,” adding the proviso, “without relocation.”
The islanders know now that the socialist promises given before the election, have been cast aside and that the fight to save their homes is still on. The government may have changed by the obscene determination to rid the islands of people and properties continues, whatever the political colour of the administration.
"The dangers remain" and "the pressure will continue," said the president of the Farol Islanders Association, Feliciano Júlio, hoping that the left wing parties will continue the support they all offered before the October 4th general election.
The demonstrators outside the Polis meeting had various banners, the most telling read simply - "PS, PC, BE fulfill your promises."
The islanders have put up a strong fight using media and the courts to deter and obstruct the demolition programme that everyone but Polis sees as an act of social engineering to rid the islands of people so that high class tourism areas can be sold off by the State to developers.
The times when few wanted to suffer the hardship associated with island life are long gone and the communities now attract tourists keen to visit and witness a forgotten way of life.
The ‘renaturisation’ project, ‘demolition’ by any other name, was expected affect only second homes but when Polis got going, it’s reviled director Sebastião Teixeira caused outrage and protest from resident as first homes were bulldozed, leaving families homeless.
Court challenges managed to suspend demolitions and all hoped that when Polis was wound up on the last day of 2016, that this would mark an end to the insanity of demolishing 800 properties and evicting islanders who have every right to live where they live.
It has not yet been explained how the Minister for the Environment has arrived at his decision to extend the Polis remit in the face of previous Socialist Party promises, but he is in danger of creating an unwanted split in the fragile Socialist/Left wing alliance that currently holds power.
Polis should have finished the work by the end of 2014 but two years later it is nowhere near completing the tasks required.
This fact seems to be overlooked when assessing Sebastião Teixeira’s management abilities and his dogged determination to knock down houses was supported energetically by the previous Minister for the Environment whose comment that the current demolition programme for 800 properties “was only the start” shocked civil groups as well as those directly affected.
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