″ We do not want the Festa do Avante ″. Amora merchants close doors in protest

Dozens of merchants from the parish of Amora, in Seixal, will close their doors between September 4 and 6, during the Festa do Avante, in Quinta da Atalaia to show their dissatisfaction with the communist event. The initiative started from the restaurant Rota dos Petiscos Terra e Mar and already groups more than 30 establishments.

The restaurant’s kitchen manager, Maria Carvalho, believes that until the beginning of the Festa do Avante, there will be many more who will join the protest.

“We are coming to the weekend of the Festa do Avante and it makes no sense to remain open. I think that until next Thursday the list will exceed one hundred closed establishments, being already extensive in several areas. It is not only the restaurant, there are stalls cars, real estate, hairdressers, mini-markets, I think now we can speak out loud and say: We don’t want the Festa do Avante ”, Maria Carvalho tells TSF.

María Carvalho admits that she will lose money with the decision to close doors, but understands that the risk is greater: “I’d rather close three days than have to close three weeks.”

Maria Carvalho tells TSF that not only merchants are worried. Many residents of the parish of Amora will leave the municipality next weekend: “I am aware that many people will leave the Festa do Avante area this weekend. I am even aware that those who remain will put black cloths on the window, in the sense of showing their disgust for this fact here in the municipality of Seixal ”.

The Fiesta Avante starts next Friday, at Quinta da Atalaia, in Seixal. The event has been surrounded by controversy, bringing together more than 30,000 people at a time of pandemic. The PCP has already guaranteed that all security measures will be guaranteed.