Government continues to dig hole for itself (in sand) over controversy surrounding beach umbrellas

Comment: Environment minister Maria da Graça Carvalho has shown today that it is not only the education minister who cannot dig himself out of a hole.

Ms Carvalho has been digging holes for herself in the sand of the nation’s beaches since APA told Expresso newspaper in May that “there is no law prohibiting sunshades in front of beach concessions”.

The howls of outrage (from beach concessions) that followed saw APA’s president Pimenta Machado quite sensibly decide that he had “said all that he had to say on the subject” and would not be saying any more.

Not Ms Carvalho: she has been striding the sands of the Algarve ever since, conjuring up ‘security strips’ and other ideas to ensure emboldened beachgoers do not pitch their umbrellas anywhere near prized concessions (concessions pay for lifeguards, after all: the government wouldn’t want a mutiny).

Last month, she suggested a ‘map’, to be erected at the entrance to every beach, showing people where they could set up their umbrellas, where there were these new no-go phenomena (security strips), and where paying customers should be able to enjoy the uncluttered views of the ocean from their sunbeds without having to contend with the sight of someone’s cockeyed umbrella (and possibly family sheltering beneath it).

The map suggestion didn’t immediately ‘catch on’: beaches are not like shopping centres, after all. They don’t tend to have designated entrances. They can often be accessed from a number of angles. This could require a lot of maps…

Whatever the reason for maps not having caught on (up till now), today the minister has doubled down, reiterating that “informational maps would help avoid disputes over the placement of beach umbrellas”.

Disputes? Ms Carvalho clearly smells trouble brewing.

But here is the conundrum. “There is no law prohibiting sunshades in front of beach concessions”, and there also is no law requiring Ms Carvalho’s maps – or ‘little maps’, as she now likes to call them – to be affixed to the entrance of every beach.

If one travels down that rabbit hole a little further, the little maps could be trying to impose ‘an illegality’. Heaven forbid!

Perhaps it is time for the Agriculture minister to step in? José Manuel Fernandes has shown that he has a novel approach to the law. He believes that if it doesn’t suit the government’s objectives, it should be changed, “with a simple portaria (order) or a decree-law”

Perhaps that might be where this ridiculous summer wrangle is going. It would save ministers wringing their hands periodically and encouraging municipalities to come up with ‘little maps’ at the entrance to every beach…

But then again, perhaps not. According to the minister, the mayors in the Algarve are ‘all for her idea’, and will be implementing it forthwith…

We can but wait.

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.