The text of the petition, available online, states that the local authority intends to “implement a mobility policy that is exactly contrary to environmental, urban and tourist sustainability, injecting more cars into the congested centre of Funchal, and with the added aggravating factor of locating the new car park in a delicate area of ​​listed historic buildings”.

The project to build an underground car park in Praça do Município, with a capacity for 500 cars, is part of the programme presented by the PSD/CDS-PP coalition in 2021, the year in which it won the local elections with an absolute majority.

The list was headed by the social democrat Pedro Calado, who resigned as mayor in January this year, following the investigation into suspicions of corruption in Madeira, in which he was named a defendant.

The public petition entitled “Against the construction of a car park under the Praça do Município do Funchal” considers that the project goes against the mobility policies adopted by “any developed and civilised European city”, in the sense of removing cars from historic centres and returning the streets to pedestrians.

“Drilling a hole in one of Funchal’s most beautiful squares, Praça do Município, built in the early 1940s by two of the most renowned Portuguese architects, Francisco Caldeira Cabral and Raul Lino, will disfigure it, even if it is later restored to its original form,” the text states, indicating that “in all honesty and conscience, no one can guarantee that the construction work, with the inevitable shaking, will not cause damage to the listed historic buildings of the Jesuit Church and College, the former Episcopal Palace, now the Funchal Museum of Sacred Art, and even the City Hall itself.”

Lusa news agency contacted the local authority about the launch of the public petition, but the executive, currently led by Cristina Pedra, refused to comment, referring to the position published in the printed edition of Diário de Notícias da Madeira.