She has said they have to suck it up or face the consequences – “the responsibility is theirs” – but Portimão’s angry ratepayers are reported to be socking it to Mayor Isilda Gomes.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, the group is up in arms over the council’s plan for a civil protection tax. They are preparing legal action designed to stop it in its tracks.
The citizens were behind the 500-strong protest earlier this week, convened as the Socialist council approved its new “Taxa Municipal de Proteção Civil”.
Ratepayers’ greatest beef is that there is no clear destination for the money.
“I would agree if the council asked for a euro or two, to go directly to firemen,” Madalena Augusta explained to journalists. “But the way it is structured, we do not know where the money is going.”
Ratepayers’ mistrust of the most-indebted council in the land does not help the situation.
Portimão council owes well over €150 million (some estimates suggests more like €160 million), can take up to five years to pay its debts and has a series of financial and political scandals in its drawers.
Protesters claim people are simply “fed up with all the abuse” and that it is time to fight back.
Anyone interested in joining the fight has been encouraged to turn up to put their names to a protest document tomorrow (Saturday October 11), which will be gathering signatures outside Portimão’s municipal market.
An online petition has now been set up – http://peticaopublica.com/pview.aspx?pi=PT74973
