My own view is that although support is quite widespread it has fallen steadily since Madeleine disappeared.
In the days and weeks following the disappearance there were few people who did not have sympathy for the parents, much of which translated into support by way of a donation. As time went on however and more of the details of what transpired that day were released into the public domain, that support began to slowly diminish. It goes without saying that much blame for this can rightly be laid at the door of the Portuguese and British Press who published articles accusing the parents of having an involvement in their daughters disappearance. Support has never recovered from those dark days of the three arguidos.
Mr Amaral certainly played his part in destroying support, his book and dvd provided an alternative scenario to an abduction, a scenario which directly accused the parents of involvement. The publication of the case files was the final nail in the support coffin, anyone interested in the case could read the facts of the case instead of relying on second hand stories and accounts from the media.
In the end, what initially started out as shock and disbelief followed by sympathy, thereafter descended for many into uncertainty and accusation. The attempts to ban the Amaral book, the damages trial and the subsequent appeal which has yet to be determined have all added to the uncertainty and suspicion.
Support has now levelled off after reducing from that high plateau achieved eight years ago, there is only one event which can now increase that support.
Broadly speaking this is accurate.
I think the support had diminished before Amaral and his book. There were lurid stories circulating quite quickly - the McCanns at Chaplins (false) - the crying incident (????) - and a whole slew of behavioural analysis (no searching, laughing, jogging etc etc etc) that had poisoned the chalice.
I remember sitting on the veranda of the beach restaurant, the Paraíso, basically where the CCTV filmed the T7, and a loud English voice from 2 tables down said "well, you've only got to look around to see how easy it is to hide a body here!"
Personally, I was at the stage of thinking "now if the McCanns dunnit, how did they hide the body?" After chunking through a hell of a lot of options, I have concluded that it is possible that the McCanns "dunnit" (dumped a body or worse), but that this is
highly unlikely. This opinion depends on a detailed knowledge of Luz and surrounds, something that the PJ and SY didn't/don't have, and something that the media does not give a toss about.
I did not follow the case originally, so I don't have a blow-by-blow view. Looking at things from a distance, despite having a PR 'expert' on board Team McCann, the media interaction strikes me as being akin to Gerald Ratner when he sank his jewellery high street chain.
What I perceive now is 2 polarised camps - support at all costs v demonise at all costs, with a minority choosing not to join either. Surrounded by a media which still sees Madeleine primarily as a cash cow.
