News just in to the Resident as the country clocks off for Labour Day weekend is that a council meeting in Faro this evening will debate a PS resolution calling for the resignation of Polis Litoral’s man-at-the-helm, Sebastião Teixeira.
The reason, a source informs, is that Teixeira “has been seen for a second time to try and ignore judicial decisions” over Polis’ devastating demolition plan aimed at wiping out the Ria’s communities.
Indeed, PSD mayors involved in Polis are also rallying to the cause as they see the groundswell of public opinion supporting islanders.
Faro’s Rogério Bacalhau and Vila Real de Santo António’s Luís Gomes have issued a joint statement ahead of tonight’s meeting saying it is time to “take stock” of the “execution and efficiency” of Polis’ so-called POOC plan (see our story: https://www.portugalresident.com/people%E2%80%99s-victory-in-ria-formosa-wins-islanders-demolition-reprieve-with-video) “bearing in mind that it impacts on populational nuclei and fundamental sectors for the economy of the Algarve”.
As we have explained before in this long-running battle to save 800 homes, Polis’ nine-year POOC (the Plano de Ordenamento da Orla Costeira) for Vilamoura-Vila Real de Santo António) may not even be legal.
It was due to end last year, but instead was extended for 12 further months in which the government signalled the go-ahead for a huge programme of demolitions.
Polis’ “lack of transparency” over the agenda can be seen in their statement, which says nothing about demolitions – and by the fact that no official accounts have been published for three years, despite huge sums of money being ploughed into the state-held society.
Bacalhau, who has already spoken out against the demolitions – stressing that they cannot be seen to be without a hidden agenda – is described by Sulinformação as being keen to see the POOC revised as soon as possible.
“It cannot go on like this,” he told the news service after last weekend that saw over 1,000 people rally to the islanders’ cause and take part in a human chain protest that has been widely shared online and featured on Portuguese television news.
As islanders were buoyed by today’s news, they got another boost for their hard-fought campaign.
Olhão football club is dedicating its match on Saturday against Chaves to raising awareness for the battle.
All the players will be wearing “Je Suis Ilhéu” t-shirts and the Portuguese Football Federation is right behind it.
“Every day that passes, more people join our cause,” one of the tigers behind the campaign, mother-of-one Vanessa Morgado, told us today.
Vanessa is one of the five-strong group that has been coming up with big ideas to save the islands’ way of life. Just an example is the factory siren ordered online to “call inhabitants to arms” long-distance.
Early on Monday morning, after Polis announced it would be coming to take possession of the islanders’ homes on Farol nucleus – despite the recent court embargo forbidding it – the siren was put through its paces, calling islanders from across the sands.
Sulinformação described the string of people, dressed in their “Je Suis Ilhéu” t-shirts, as looking like a religious procession.
