Democracy and freedom can't end on a date - they're practised every day, and that's the only way to guarantee their continuity. It is, therefore, unfortunate and symptomatic that Cascais is demonstrating the opposite: arrogance, contempt for the Assembly of the Republic and the citizens, using the machinery of public administration to guarantee privileges and patronage, favouring private interests to the detriment of the public interest, and/or using lies to denigrate those who legitimately oppose the council's intentions. You only have to attend the Municipal Assembly sessions to see this. You only have to listen to the systematic, unfounded insinuations made by the Mayor. You only have to watch how the Town Hall continues to ignore the Parliamentary Resolution recommending the classification of Quinta dos Ingleses as a locally protected landscape. Just look at how the same council denies the evidence of the massive opposition to the PPERUCS and the buildings planned for Quinta dos Ingleses without ever reversing the process. Just look at how the CMC reduces opposition to the destruction of the Quinta to "the private interests of a few". It's enough to see that the City Council is calling for SOS to be ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation (in an attempt to intimidate and discourage those who oppose it) when we are fighting to save the Quinta, the Bairro da Torre, the beach and surfing in Carcavelos. Just look at how the council ignores the combined impacts of the construction planned for Quinta dos Ingleses and climate change in Carcavelos. CMC is weak with the strong and strong with the weak.
SOS Quinta dos Ingleses will continue to be an example of the opposite: that civil society is stronger when faced with the injustice of political decision-makers, that power is only legitimate when it corresponds to the exercise of the public interest and that private interests are legitimate and must be safeguarded, but cannot override the public interest, particularly when life and the environment are at stake in a world undergoing a climate emergency. A free and democratic country knows how to do this.