Young teenagers in Lisbon reinforcement and free public transport – Observer
Around 50 young people demanded this Sunday, in Lisbon, the reinforcement of public transport and its gratuity, considering it an essential measure in the fight against climate change, in a demonstration organized by the Lisbon Student Climate Strike.
Gonçalo Paixão, a 20-year-old worker, lives in Sintra and tells Lusa that the offer of public transport is reduced, whether on the rail or buses, careers that he says were even more harmed in the pandemic crisis.
“They don’t reach the places that need to be reached and the buses are from a private company that does not guarantee offers on weekends, holidays, when people want to walk and visit the rest of the district. What makes more money is for people to go to work and when they are also operated on, on weekends and injured, they do not act”, he said in a statement to Lusa, during the concentration of the protest in Príncipe Real.
With a sticker on his lapel saying “capitalism is not green”, the young worker considers that the capitalist production system and the big businesses it provides (as in the case of oil companies) have an “overwhelming impact” on the environment.
As to whether the older generations are alienated from this struggle, Gonçalo Paixão believes that young people are more committed to being the ones who have to live longer “with the consequences that these problems will impose”, but that “there are many people, even people elderly, willing to fight for a better world”.
For Maria Mesquita, a 19-year-old student-worker living in Lisbon, the solution to the climate crisis and mobility cannot pass through individual electric transport, but through an adequate public transport network that responds to the needs of different populations, and she appeared dressed as a Santa Claus to demand this in the demonstration.
“We belong to the countries of the European Union that transport the most individual transport because we are obliged. The answer is a public transport network and better transport conditions so that we are not forced to use the individual vehicle every day”, he says to Lusa.
Bianca Castro, a 20-year-old student and one of those responsible for the organization, says that the protest this Christmas requires “muscled investment” in transport, reinforcement of schedules and schedules, as well as more workers and better working conditions.
“The solution is not the massification of electric cars or green taxes, but investing in public transport is a return for everyone”, he said, considering that the Government’s investment in public transport “is not enough”.
In addition, he added, a weak public transport supply undermines the country’s cohesion and “reinforces the social isolation of already marginalized communities”, advocating serious measures at the national level.
Originally from Odemira, Bianca Castro gave the example of Luzianes-Gare where “there is practically no public transport and the train station was closed in 2012”.
The protest continued from Príncipe Real to the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint with banners such as “free public transport for all” or “social justice = climate justice” and slogans such as “mobility is priceless, I want the world I deserve ”,“ Profit is more polluting than all these people ”or“ oh oh oh oh if I fight the system falls”.
The route of the demonstration led to long lines in the cars heading to the center of Chiado, with several drivers protesting, honking their horns.