“We must continue fighting. The fight is not over yet. From this moment on, the Via do Infante Users Commission [CUVI] will continue to demand the dismantling of the gantries. Because we don’t know if tomorrow we won’t have another government that, citing difficulties for the country, will be tempted to put the tolls back in place”, João Vasconcelos, spokesperson for the Via do Infante Users Commission (CUVI), told journalists.

The platform's representative was speaking at a press conference held in Loulé, in the district of Faro, next to the A22, to mark the end of tolls on this former Scut (road free of charge for the user) from 2025.

The user committee also demands “public disclosure and denunciation of the Via do Infante PPP [public-private partnership] contract”, considering “it is necessary that those obscure issues that are unknown to the Algarve and the Portuguese people be made public and that the Government does not pay the debts that gave many millions [of euros] to the concessionaire”.

The platform will continue, “to demand that Via do Infante has an adequate surface” and that there is “adequate and rigorous maintenance”, highlighted João Vasconcelos, indicating that, on January 11th, CUVI will hold a forum in Loulé on these three themes.

CUVI also intends to change the name to the Commission of Users of Via do Infante and Estrada Nacional 125 (EN125), because “there is a lot to do” on the EN125, namely the requalification of the road in the section between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António.

João Vasconcelos highlighted the 14-year struggle of the commission, which began in 2010, a year before the introduction of tolls in the Algarve, on December 8, 2011.