The recent elections not only strengthened the Right in the Assembly of the Republic but also expanded the political spectrum, with the Parliament now represented by ten parties, a record number.
Back in 2019, the same number of parties occupied the parliamentary seats, but now, the Parliament welcomes a new party: Juntos pelo Povo (JPP).
What is this party?
Juntos pelo Povo (JPP) had already been tested a few months ago when last March it unseated the Socialist Party to become the opposition party in the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
Now, emerging from Madeira, JPP enters the Assembly of the Republic with the deputy Filipe Sousa, one of the party’s founders.
In 2008, in the Madeiran municipality of Santa Cruz, the group of voters called Pelo Povo de Gaula was born. The following year, the group became known as the citizens’ movement, Juntos Pelo Povo. In 2013, JPP won the Santa Cruz City Council, removing the Social Democratic Party from the municipal leadership it had held since 1976, and two years later, in 2015, it became a political party.
The deputy elected on Sunday is one of the founders of this party, along with his brother, Élvio Sousa, JPP’s secretary-general, with whom Notícias ao Minuto spoke a few days before the elections.
As such, JPP becomes the first party headquartered outside Lisbon to elect a deputy to the Portuguese parliament.
Based in Madeira, JPP contested in 10 electoral circles – Coimbra, Braga, Faro, Setúbal, Porto, Lisbon, Azores, Madeira, Europe, and Outside Europe – but the likelihood of election was higher in the autonomous region.
The secretary-general regarded this as a “remarkable, historic moment, which will define the territorial extension of JPP nationally, but undoubtedly it is the moment and merit of this movement that became a party and of all the citizens who trusted us.”
“Today is also a historic moment because it shows that the merit of the party Juntos Pelo Povo was not in having a reference in Lisbon or Porto, it was having a reference in the Autonomous Region of Madeira,” he noted.
JPP had tried for a seat in Parliament before
Although making its debut in the national Parliament, this is not the first time it has sought votes with an eye on the mainland. In 2015, when it first contested national legislative elections with lists in 14 circles, it secured a total of 14,275 votes (0.26%), 8,670 of which were in Madeira.
In the 2019 legislative elections, the party recorded 10,552 votes (0.21%) in a total of 10 circles, with 7,125 in the autonomous region, a situation that was almost repeated in the 2022 legislative elections, where it ran in six circles, with a total of 10,786 votes (0.20%), 8,722 being in Madeira.
On March 10, 2024, Juntos Pelo Povo advanced in 10 circles and achieved its best ever result in national elections, with 19,145 votes (0.31%), of which 14,344 were in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, whose list was headed by Filipe Sousa.
Filipe Sousa has been president of the Santa Cruz Municipal Council since 2013 but suspended his role on April 7 to head the list for the legislative elections.
Coming from Madeira… and criticism follows
In the distribution of Madeiran representatives in the national parliament, the three mandates of the PSD/CDS coalition remain. Chega retains its elected representative, while the Socialist Party loses one of its two deputies.
On Sunday, the president of PSD/Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, highlighted that the AD PSD-CDS/PP coalition achieved a “resounding and indisputable” victory in the region and that the Socialist Party “paid dearly” for the fall of the Government.
Albuquerque thanked the participation of the Madeiran population in this electoral act, considering that “contrary to expectations and despite the fact that we have had recurring elections in recent years, there was significant important participation from the population” in this civic action to “continue to participate massively” in the suffrages.
For the island governor, “the PS paid very dearly for the irresponsibility of toppling the Government,” and he added, “being a party of democratic system formation, it must learn from this lesson.”
He also argued it is necessary to “create conditions for stability,” adding that “this involves ad hoc agreements for the approval of the Government Program and the Budget.”
“It is not desirable for the country,” given the economic scenario, the current international political situation, and the necessary challenges for economic growth, “to continue to toy with political parties and elections every year.”
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