Today, the Baixo Alentejo Federation of the Socialist Party (PS) issued a statement asserting that the A26 highway project leading to Beja is merely an “electoral illusion”.
“Were it not such a serious issue for Portugal’s future, this final act by the AD Government could become national satire,” they remarked sarcastically.
The socialists accused the government, led by Luís Montenegro, of hastily approving several projects labeled as “priorities” without any technical framework, but which the executive “does not actually intend to execute”.
The PS federation argued that “out of the well-publicized set of 31 projects, which emerged from a campaign-driven Council of Ministers meeting, the government would only ensure funding for eight interventions”.
They emphasized that the A26 extension is not included in the small number of announced projects receiving actual funding.
The AD (PSD/CDS-PP) government has relegated its completion to a public-private partnership model, which does not benefit the development interests of interior regions such as the Beja district, they asserted.
The statement criticized the “pompous announcement, heavily promoted for mere local and national electoral purposes in Baixo Alentejo” by Gonçalo Valente, a PSD deputy elected for Beja, claiming the city would be connected via a new A26 stretch.
He was “seconded by the Minister of Infrastructure [Miguel Pinto Luz], who committed to delivering it by the end of the legislative term, supposedly ending in 2028,” they noted.
“How could the A26 be completed by 2028 without a project, environmental impact assessment, known route, or foreseen or conducted expropriations? Is this an honest promise?” they questioned in the statement.
Or was the aim “to amend the wrong done to Baixo Alentejo when it was halted, during that ill-remembered government led by Pedro Passos Coelho,” the PS added.
During a Council of Ministers meeting on the 10th of this month, before the government’s resignation, a resolution was approved tasking Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) with developing priority road projects.
At that time, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing indicated that, among the “approximately 30 roads marked as priorities”, was the Main Route 8 – IP8/A26.
It was reported that there is a plan “to increase the capacity of the IP8 (A26), continuing current investments along the Sines to Beja corridor, which aims for a dual carriageway connection to Beja,” according to a notice from Lusa.
On the 12th, PSD deputy Gonçalo Valente expressed satisfaction that the government had voted to make the A26 extension to Beja a priority and approved “the much-desired continuation”.
On February 24, PS deputy Nelson Brito, elected for Beja, had already questioned the government in parliament regarding the feasibility of building the A26 as a highway to Beja and how this investment could align with ongoing work on the IP8. He argued it was “implausible” for the project to be completed in “less than four years”.
