The movement “Deslarrrguem a Arrábida!” is holding on Saturday a flashmob-style gathering at Bocage Square in Setúbal to protest the attempt to privatize five beaches and natural spaces in Arrábida by Herdade da Comenda.
This is already the movement’s third initiative of this kind. The first was in June and the second in July.
Jaime Pinho, from the civic group, explained in statements to the Lusa agency that this is yet another action to ensure that the fight against the attempt to privatize those spaces in Arrábida is not forgotten, defending the maintenance of free public access.
This time the movement intends, symbolically, to transform the center of Setúbal into the “Bocage Beach”.
“In every initiative we undertake people ask what we will do next. This time we will create a private beach next to Bocage’s statue,” he said.
The organizers are calling on all citizens to bring beach towels, coolers, sun hats and inflatables for the protest, scheduled for 7:00 PM.
The aim is to assemble a crowd of bathers in front of the City Hall, generating a striking visual impact that denounces the private appropriation of the region’s beaches.
Illustrator and cartoonist Nuno Saraiva joined the initiative by creating a themed poster, as illustrator Luis Cavaco had done in previous actions.
The “Deslarrrguem a Arrábida!” initiative is promoted by the movements Reabrir a Galé and Dunas Livres, by university professor and environmentalist Viriato Soromenho-Marques, and by the Setúbal branch of the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc).
In July hundreds of people participated in a walk between Setúbal and the Comenda Picnic Park, an action that brought together citizens, several environmental associations and representatives of different political forces.
Sociedade Palácio da Comenda, SA, owner of Herdade da Comenda, is pursuing several legal actions, in which it seeks to have recognized the “exclusive property” of the strip of land along the road known as Municipal Road 1056, arguing that it is private property.
In the various proceedings ongoing at the Setúbal Court, the owners of Herdade da Comenda request that the lands along the margins of the property “Quinta Herdade da Comenda,” which to the south face the waters of the Sado estuary, including the five beaches there (Rasca, Comenda, Rainha, Maria Esguelha and Albarquel), as well as the lands along the Ajuda riverbank from its mouth in the estuary of the Sado to the Comenda Picnic Park, be considered private property rather than public domain.
Both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Portuguese Environment Agency reject Herdade da Comenda’s claim to own the beaches.
The population of Setúbal has faced increasing difficulties in accessing the Troia and Arrábida beaches, due to the price of the Sado ferry crossing, but also in accessing Arrábida beaches due to restrictions on automobile circulation for safety reasons.
This year, due to the storms in January and February, which caused hundreds of trees to fall and damaged embankments and slopes of the main road to the area’s beaches, and the threat of a rockfall of a block weighing about two thousand tons between the Galapos and Figueirinha beaches, the Setúbal City Council decided to further prioritize public transport and substantially tightened the restrictions on car traffic.
