IL/Azores criticized on Tuesday the “lack of attention” of the State towards the Azoreans, regretting that the Minister of Justice, who was recently in the region, did not visit the courts in “the worst state of conservation”.
In a statement, the sole deputy of IL in the parliament of the Azores, Nuno Barata, warned about the conditions in the courts of Ribeira Grande, on the island of São Miguel, and Santa Cruz, in Flores.
“The Ribeira Grande Court was where the minister should have come, but she didn’t. The minister should have come because here the State does not fulfill its fundamental function of guaranteeing access to justice in decent conditions, both for professionals and for users,” said the Liberal, quoted in the press release, regarding a visit that he made this Tuesday to the place.
On September 19, the Minister of Justice, Catarina Sarmento e Castro, began a three-day visit to the Azores, in which she visited prisons and courts on five islands (Terceira, Pico, São Jorge, Faial and São Miguel).
The IL deputy in the Regional Assembly regretted that the ruler “has not visited the courts in the worst state of conservation” in the Azores.
“The State spends its life helping where it should not be and stops helping where it should be permanently and every day,” he said.
According to Nuno Barata, who visited the Palácio da Justiça da Ribeira Grande on Tuesday, when it rains you have to put “buckets on the ground to collect the water” in that courtyard and the “electrical installation breaks down, leaving all the services of the court, of the conservatories and the notary without access to computer equipment”.
“The Portuguese State must fulfill its mission towards the citizens who also pay taxes here,” he stressed.
The liberal parliamentarian also defended the importance of decentralization, criticizing the Government of the Republic for the “centralization of services and decisions in Lisbon”.
“Whoever is here can make the necessary interventions with greater effectiveness and efficiency,” he warned.
IL, together with Chega and the independent deputy, is one of the forces that supports the Government of the Azores (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) in the Regional Legislative Assembly.
Source: Observadora
