[ad_1]
In front of the Doña María II National Theater, and surrounded by a visible police apparatus, the organizers of the protest make themselves heard over an open van, from which they disarm a list of complaints that always conclude the same: “restoration and restoration! culture are dying! ”.
Those present, masked and with a certain social distancing, hold posters that read the main demands of these sectors.
They complain of being the scapegoat for this pandemic and claim to be the most responsible for security, but say that despite this they have been the most affected.
“They are killing 100% of the restaurants for 3% of the contagion”, “We want to work, let’s live” or “There is no health without an economy” are some of the phrases that can be read on the posters of some of the protesters.
Different stakeholders complain that they have been forced to lay off workers, especially in the cultural entertainment sector, but also in restaurants, hotels, discos and bars and tourist transport.
Those present applaud and make themselves heard with whistles.
Atop the makeshift platform, speeches have gone on, often with the use of profanity and much outrage.
Commerce and restaurants begin today the first of two weekends when they can only open between 08:00 and 13:00, under the state of emergency, a measure challenged by several business associations.
At a press conference, at the same time that this protest takes place in Rossio, in Lisbon, the Minister of State, Economy and Digital Transition announced that the support already made available or announced for the catering sector as a result of the crisis caused due to the pandemic, it totaled 1,103 million euros, which corresponds to approximately 60% of the drop in income registered by the sector.
This global value includes 286 million euros of support that has already reached companies in this sector through the simplified ‘dismissal’ and support for progressive recovery or the 200 million euros for the new apo.pt program, which consists of in the attribution of non-reimbursable support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to compensate for the breakdown of income.
