Twelve municipalities of Minho at “extremely high” risk

Businessmen, employees, family members and suppliers of the hotel and restaurant industry in Guimarães returned to the streets this Saturday 21. From Campo de São Mamede to Largo do Toural, the protesters marched carrying posters with messages for António Costa.

“How much have the deputies already lost with the crisis?” – You can read it on one of the posters. There are numerous messages addressed to the Prime Minister and the Government.

The protesters complain about the “lack of concrete measures to help the sector.” The support proposed by the Government, based on 20% of this year’s turnover, takes on value. “It is ridiculous, it is nothing and has no expression in the state budget,” criticizes Pedro Fernandes, a businessman in the restaurant sector. A poster asked: “How much have the deputies already lost with the crisis?”

Pedro Fernandes reminds the Government that “if businessmen are asked not to say goodbye, they must be helped.” “I have ten employees with me, how am I going to pay them if I don’t bill?” The businessman confesses that in the first confinement he had losses that exceeded 30 thousand euros. “At that moment I held out, what a remedy, the summer was not famous, it was to start working, but with this stop is the end. There are some companies that resorted to credit in the first confinement, these now have no space for anything else, they are going to start closing ”, he concludes.

Speeches were not foreseen at the arrival of the march in front of Toural, even so, Nuno Freitas, manager of the hotel business, improvised a platform from a garden bench. “We want a national strategy so that we can define a local strategy, we want to know what will happen in the next three months,” he complained. “What is this tree made for if we won’t be able to see it? What are we doing this for? “- Nuno Freitas asked, pointing to the large Christmas tree, which will be installed next to it.

The hotel manager talks about reducing his company’s turnover to a quarter, “this while we have 40 employees.” Nuno Freitas mainly complains about the uncertainty. “Either it is to close or it is to open and it is not with 20%, because 20% of this year’s turnover only means one thing, they are empty coffers,” he said. “We are not asking for 20% or asking for alms, we are asking for a strategy,” he continued. “If not, we will return to the land to cultivate,” he concluded. The crowd received the improvised speech with applause and knocking of pots, a symbol of the sector much seen in the demonstration.

Nuno Freitas left a question for the President of the Republic: “Do we depend on the Hungarian Prime Minister?”

Many businessmen present recalled the importance of the hotel and catering sector for the success of tourism in Portugal. “We have been paying heavy taxes for a long time, it is important that this money has been well spent, so that now they can help us.”

The president of the Associação Vimaranense de Hotelaria, Ricardo Pinto da Silva, who organized this march, says that the important thing is that the Government listens to them and takes effective measures to support the hotel and restaurant sectors.

Regarding the meeting they had with the City Council, the president of AVH, defends that the measures taken by the Municipality are “important to mitigate the effects of this crisis”, but there are other measures that do not depend on the Chamber that are part of the manifesto that the association addressed the prime minister. This manifesto contained eight specific proposals:

1. Exemption from the payment of the Single Social Rate, for a period of 8 months;
2. Reduction of the VAT rate applicable to restaurants to 6% on all products by 2022;
3. Exemption of 50% of the income owed by hotel and restaurant establishments by virtue of the respective lease contracts. This amount would be partially reimbursed by the State, on the one hand, exempting the value of withholding at source, either through exemption from the payment of the landlord’s release fee from the property income obtained under these contracts;
4. Implementation of new tax and contributory moratoriums, mainly in relation to the payment of IRC;
5. Increase of 50% of the maximum limits of the values ​​foreseen for the non-reimbursable support of the Apoiar.pt program, aimed at both the hotel sector and the restaurant sector, in a similar way to what happens with the night entertainment sector (11,250 € for micro-businesses and € 60,000 for small businesses);
6. Exceptional and complementary support to the hospitality sector corresponding to 20% of the interruption of billing in periods in which there are circulation restrictions, in the same line as for the catering sector, to compensate for the total stoppage of the activity that These limitations caused;
7. Immediate implementation (and not until the end of 2020) of the rules that make access to the Progressive Resume Support program more flexible for all companies in the hotel and restaurant sector;
8. Immediate implementation of non-refundable monthly incentives, corresponding to 20% of the billing break compared to the same period of the previous year.

These measures depend on the Government and, to that extent, Ricardo Pinto da Silva asks the Guimarães City Council to transfer its influence with the António Costa executive.

The president of AVH mentions breaks greater than 60% in the restoration. In the hotel industry, the scenario is catastrophic, with an average reduction in income, until October, of 90%, according to the president of AVH. “The message that the government transmits to us daily is one of fear, sowing fear in the population and it is working,” criticizes Ricardo Pinto Silva.

“The spending that is being made at the moment is not channeled to the right places,” commented the AVH president, regarding the Christmas lighting.

One of the organization’s concerns was to stay out of it. Pedro Fernandes made participation in the national demonstration dependent on this premise, which is scheduled for the 25th (last day for the payment of taxes to the State).

At the end of the demonstration, Bruno Fernandes, leader of the Guimarães PSD, met with some of the participants. The Social Democratic leader expressed his support for the protesters’ demands and argued that “stronger measures are needed to help this sector, even if it is to maintain employment levels.”