The 6,500 signature petition that demanded the suspension of the A22 highway tolls in the Algarve was rejected this week by the PSD/CDS-PP coalition and the PS and will not get the chance of any debate in Parliament.
The petition – put up by the ‘Algarve Without Tolls’ movement – was discarded on the grounds that the topic had already been “discussed and rejected before”, said the parliamentary commission of Economy and Public Works.
According to Mário Cunha, the man behind the anti-toll movement, this attitude shows “clear contempt” for the Algarve, as well as for “everyone who has, in one way or another, raised their voices against the tolls”.
“The number of signatures is extremely demonstrative of the way Algarveans feel about this crime that is being committed against the region,” he added.
Cunha reinforced that the tolls “jeopardise the already weakened businesses in the region” and have “destroyed jobs”. He stressed the “extremely grave social costs” that the traffic channelled onto the “death road – the EN125” has caused.
“Too many people have already died on that road,” he affirmed.
Cunha also launched an attack on MPs who, he says, oppose the tolls when they visit the Algarve but take a different stand when they are in Parliament.
Despite this week’s setback, the movement guarantees it will continue fighting, as “more and more people” are demanding the suspension of the Algarve’s tolls.
