With the end of the school year approaching and the time to make what will be one of the most impactful university choices in the life of the future, there is a doubt before each one of where he will write his story in the coming years. One thing is certain, the choice ends up being concentrated around large urban areas such as Lisbon and Porto or, at most, heading to the renowned city of students.

What happens is that the students go in search of their dreams and with them part of what gives life to villages and towns across the country. These villages and towns are walking slowly towards desertification because many leave, stay and none come back.

An analysis of the data released by the National Statistics Institute based on the results obtained through the Census 2 to understand that in the last decade, between 201 and 2021, Portugal registered a population decrease of 2%, which resulted1 in an indisputable accentuation of the littoralization pattern and , consequently, in an increase in the desertification of the interior of the country.

But the country does not limit itself – nor can it limit itself – to half a dozen cities.

It is urgent to combat the narrative that the countryside has nothing to offer us or that the quality of life goes hand in hand with the metropolises. It is urgent to provide these territories, which seem to have been forgotten, and new vitality that is great – and that it deserves. It is to invest that to make the best that there is in our country worth, and this is urgently needed, today abandoned, projects we come across to combat the reality of an interior.

To watch, without fear and serenity, a progressive desertification of the territories is to agree with this reality. The countryside needs us and we all need a cohesive, collaborative country and, above all, we need a country that is connected.

Basic maintenance services in the construction of basic systems promote the inclusion of social inclusion and without access to essential goods and services, because living in the countryside does not have to be synonymous with being constantly subject to uncertainty rather than access to care. health concerns. Living in the countryside should not be the primary justification for an elderly person, a pregnant woman or a newborn to see their health care limited because they live 70 km from the nearest hospital unit. Choosing to live in the countryside should not condemn its inhabitants to be the target of inflation, by the local commerce networks, just because it is not easy for many of them to go to a locality where they had access to a supermarket network.

to recognize and develop the potential of the interior, in order to preserve resources, and provide all those who live in these territories with a decent standard of living.

strengthening access to the country’s telecommunications because it is unthinkable that, in a developed country, the telephone network is not enough. A clearer proof that we are condemning parts of the territory to loneliness and abandonment than proof that we are withdrawing as a form of communication?

We cannot allow the disregard that exists towards the interior to perpetuate, nor can we allow a forgotten Portugal to exist.

Basically, we cannot fail to have an abandoned part of Portugal because, no matter how deep the territory, the Portuguese do not forget about us and Portugal cannot forget about them.