PORTUGAL (Gibraltar Chronicle) "Residents of the Portuguese border town of Valenca do Minho have decorated streets, balconies and squares with hundreds of Spanish flags and are carrying out public demonstrations to change nationality and be able to form part of the Spanish state. It follows an unpopular move by the Portuguese authorities to order closure of the local health centre as part of a cost cutting exercise affecting medical services to rural areas.The decision has led many of the town’s 15,000 inhabitants to take a five minute trip across the border to the Galician municipality of Tui, where they have obtained free medical assistance. Citizens have continued their protests against the closure of the health centre while expressing their gratitude to the support received from the Galician health service by parading with Spanish flags.>
"As a result of the closure of the medical facility, the nearest Portuguese health centre is 25 kilometres away, while the nearest hospital is a further 25 kilometres away. Residents have stated that they feel better treated on the Spanish side than in their own country, Portugal.
"For its part the Portuguese Government has said that medical services to Valenca do Minho are guaranteed with the restructure of services it has carried out, while blaming the episode on Portuguese opposition groups “attempting to discredit the socialist administration in Lisbon.”
"EU conventions on social security reinforced by specific cross-border Spanish-Portuguese agreements allow persons on both sides to use the European health card to receive medical attention in a neighbouring country, the cost of which is then met by the respective administrations."
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