At issue is a 5G telecommunications antenna installed on Rua Alto Xisto, in Santa Marta de Portuzelo, approximately “100 meters from the houses,” which has been contested since 2019.

Today, at the council meeting, the residents' spokesperson, Marcelino Ferreira, said that the population vehemently contests the permission to install a telecommunications antenna on private property.

The residents launched a petition, with approximately one thousand signatures, requesting urgent measures, commitment, and guarantees for the removal of the antenna and its relocation.

In the document, they highlight “the fundamental reasons for high concern, such as noise, health, property devaluation, distance from adjacent dwellings, environment, territorial planning, and aesthetics.”

In response, the mayor of Viana do Castelo said that he has already “hired a specialized company, external to the city hall, to assess the noise that residents say has increased, in order to, together with the operator that licensed the infrastructure, normalize the situation or even take steps towards its relocation.”

“This, if it is effectively proven that the residents are right about the noise levels caused by the infrastructure,” stressed Luís Nobre.

The socialist mayor added that he is prepared, “ultimately, to file a class action lawsuit.”

“Only in this way can we have some practical effect. The more factual certainty we have, the more success we will have. Having facts, they can act. It would be deceiving people and creating expectations if I said I could solve the problem,” he stressed.