In Germany, many believe they have found Maddie's murderer. Is there relief at the crime scene in the Algarve, even cheers? No. Rather, people are afraid of a new "media spectacle" that could do new damage to Luz's image and economy.
If you want to start a conversation with one of the around 3500 residents of Praia da Luz, then you should definitely not do one thing: mention the name "Maddie". "Hardly anyone wants to talk about the subject publicly here," says a reporter from the Portuguese TV news channel "TVI24". Since the then almost four-year-old British girl disappeared without a trace from a holiday resort in the tranquil village on the Algarve coast in May 2007, you have felt stigmatized here.
The hope that the case might finally be forgotten after 13 years has now once again destroyed the news from Germany.
Maddie case: Old wounds are torn open
On the "Beach of Light", the news that a 43-year-old man, who is behind bars in Kiel, is suspected of kidnapping and murdering Maddie, is opening up old wounds. Memories of the long tremor about Maddie 13 years ago are awakening again – but also of the "bad collateral damage", as a bar operator says, who does not want to be named.
He and many others now remember with horror how back then tourism, which was vital for the region, declined significantly for a few years after the girl's disappearance. "And many of the tourists who came looked at us crookedly and suspiciously."
The police are hoping for new clues from these pictures
"These people didn't even think about the people here"
"These people (meaning Maddie's parents and the British media) didn't even think about the people here when they put on their spectacle in 2007," Ana told the German Press Agency in May 2017. The woman who answered the beach promenade in Luz still sells jewelry and tattoos today, when the place experienced a rush of journalists for the umpteenth time on the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Maddie: "Slowly, the circus has to be over". A colleague of Ana regretted that Luz had been made "the center of evil".
The anger continues in 2020. In Vila da Luz, there is fear of a new "media spectacle", such as a new search for the body, which could damage the image and the economy of the region again – especially in the midst of pandemic stress.
What about the Portuguese kids?
Resentment is not only felt in Praia da Luz. If you ask Portuguese about their feelings and thoughts about the new development in the Maddie case, the answer comes almost in unison in Lisbon: "So many children disappear every day, why was there so much fuss about this case?" that somebody times? We have just pandemic and social crisis, "said on Thursday the capital pensioner Maria audibly outraged on the phone.
The bar operator in Luz is getting louder. He scolds: "After two or three weeks, you don't hear or read anything about the little Portuguese who disappear and who may have been kidnapped by foreigners, especially not abroad."
"First and second class victims"
The well-respected lawyer Sofía Matos, who was visibly moved when watching Maddie videos on Portuguese television, cannot help but point out a certain double standard among the media and authorities, with all sympathy for the girl's family. "What we shouldn't forget about all of this is that many other children have disappeared in Portugal who were not lucky enough to have international police cooperation, as in the Maddie case."
Matos recalls the case of Rui Pedro: The boy disappeared without a trace in 1988 at the age of eleven. Mother Filomena identified her son 15 years later on the portal of an international child pornography ring. Hope came up briefly, but in the end it didn't work. There was no help or advice from abroad. Rui Pedro has disappeared to this day. The media in Portugal and the newspaper "El País" in neighboring Spain found that there were "first and second class victims".
"It doesn't look like you have concrete evidence"
There are also few positive reactions from the experts who are asked by the Portuguese media about the news from Germany. The British police have a very good budget, with which they can pay a lot of informants, said former crime coordinator Carlos Carmo on TV. "There is a new suspect from time to time, but it doesn't look like you have concrete evidence," he says.
Former police inspector Paulo Santos is hitting the same line. "We have very little to say at the time that there has been a breakthrough in the investigation." The Cripo of Portugal, the Policia Judiciaria, does not want to say anything further on request.
"Everyone here in Luz thinks that it was the parents"
In Praia da Luz the reporter from "TVI24" finds a Portuguese woman who is ready to say something about Madeleine McCann. Despite the corona protective mask, the young Luz resident Catarina Marques can see the outrage on her face. "People come here every year to talk about this," she complains. And then she says what you hear over and over again: "Everyone thinks they know what happened back then". What? Asks the reporter. "Everyone here in Luz thinks that it was the parents."
This highly controversial thesis was and is still represented by the first chief investigator of the case, Gonçalo Amaral. The now 60-year-old was withdrawn from the case after only a few months after criticizing the British authorities. He then retired and wrote the book "The Truth About Lies". In it and in interviews, he repeatedly claims: Maddie is dead, the parents have covered up death. Now that a suspect has been detained in Germany, Amaral has not yet spoken.