In a statement released today, the party led by Élvio Sousa accuses Gouveia e Melo of being against autonomy by stating that this line, “demanded by Madeirans,” is not necessary.
The parliamentary leader mentions, as quoted in the statement, that “there are no coincidences” and regrets that the admiral “violated the constitutional principle of territorial cohesion and the fight against social and economic inequalities, which for a presidential candidate means he has already failed the preliminary exam.”
“This admiral has proven to be a true anti-autonomist, and we already have too many of that kind,” Élvio Sousa adds, referring to Gouveia e Melo’s statements to Antena 1 on Saturday during his three-day visit to Madeira.
“Instead of coming to Madeira to present solutions to air and maritime mobility problems, such as the urgent return of the maritime line and the revision of the mobility subsidy so that Madeirans are no longer guarantors of the State, he came here to say that the maritime line is not justified, which is important for reducing the cost of living, siding precisely with the economic group that opposes the return of the ferry to avoid facing competition, especially in cargo,” he laments.
In Élvio Sousa’s view, the presidential candidate “offended the people of Madeira and Porto Santo” and revealed a “profound ignorance of the difficulties faced by island populations.”
The secretary-general of the JPP emphasizes that it is “unacceptable to defend the perpetuation of isolation by denying mobility alternatives that compromise the economic and social development of the Madeira Autonomous Region.”
The JPP also considers that the admiral committed a “second affront by defending the continuity of the position of Representative of the Republic” and questions how the former president of the Regional Government, Alberto João Jardim (PSD), publicly supports this candidacy, which he considers to be the “personification of the purest centralism.”
