"Regarding the support, although welcome, it is already late. Because, unfortunately, companies at this moment are not in a position to refuse anything," the association's president, José Gouveia, told Lusa News Agency, after the minister of Economy announced on 14 July in parliament that the Apoiar program will be extended to companies that have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic, as is the case of nightclubs.

"I don't know what the support line will be, I don't know under what conditions this support will come, I don't even know what the substance of this support will be. I know, yes, that at this moment companies need a big financial support", added José Gouveia, who recalled that the nightclubs have been closed since March 2020.

The president of the National Association of Nightclubs, however, condemned the Government to maintain "the maximum of compulsory closure and no alternative", in "contradiction with everything that is happening in the rest of Europe", when it allows the opening of restaurants, and the holding of other events, upon presentation, by customers, of digital certificates of vaccination, recovery from illness or negative test for the virus that causes covid-19.

"I ask why they leave nightclubs out. It doesn't make any sense", defended José Gouveia.

"We are once again being marginalized by the Government at this stage," said the president of the National Association of Nightclubs, for whom "there is no financial support that the Government can give" that "can compensate these 16 months of closed space and predictably they will turn into 18 if we follow the government's directive of being closed by September this year."

José Gouveia recalled that other European countries, such as France, have already allowed the reopening of nightclubs, following precisely the same rules that Portugal applies to restaurants.

"I'm seeing Lisbon willing for tourism, be it national or foreign. I'm even seeing deserted beaches. Because we are simply driving people away from our country", he insisted.

The Apoiar program consists of a support, in the form of a non-repayable subsidy, to support companies in sectors particularly affected by the exceptional measures approved in the context of the covid-19 disease pandemic.

Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira said on 14 July, at a parliamentary hearing, that the program will be extended to companies that have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic and explained.

Siza Vieira highlighted that the activities that remained closed since the beginning of the pandemic “will probably have a few more weeks” before they can resume activity.