Two protests are taking to the Algarve’s roads this week – one this (Thursday) morning on the Guadiana Bridge and the other on Saturday (March 26) on the rundown EN124 road between Silves and the Porto de Lagos area in Portimão.
Organised by anti-toll group CUVI, the first ‘slow march’ will begin at 10am on the Guadiana Bridge in protest of the region’s A22 motorway tolls – and causing maximum upset for Easter.
“Prime Minister António Costa himself has said many times that the EN125 road is a ‘cemetery’, and that it isn’t an alternative to the A22 motorway,” said Michael Ferrada, one of the leaders of the group. Thus his call to “everyone who believes the A22 tolls should be abolished to show up and support the protest”.
Two days later, a citizens’ group calling itself ‘Utentes da EN124’ (EN124 Users) will also hold its slow march, this time along the EN124.
As the group explains: “The EN124 is one of the main roads linking coastal and inland areas in the Barvalento (Western Algarve), used by several residents and tourists to travel between Silves, Monchique and Portimão.”
The group is fed up with its “poor state” and desperate for Infraestruturas de Portugal to carry out roadworks.
Hopes are that local authorities like AMAL, the association of borough councils, will intervene to get things moving.
The march will begin at 3.30pm at Silves’ municipal pool car park.
