The leader of the Liberal Initiative, Rui Rocha, today criticized the government of Madeira (PSD/CDS-PP) for not lowering taxes in the autonomous region and accused the national PSD of “hypocrisy” for defending this measure for the country.
“It would be possible in Madeira, for example, for Madeirans to be paying much less VAT,” he said, stressing that the archipelago’s executive, led by social democrat Miguel Albuquerque, has the power to reduce taxes by applying the maximum differential of 30%.
Rui Rocha was speaking at a campaign event for the Liberal Initiative’s candidacy for the September 24 regional elections, headed by Nuno Morna, near a department store in Funchal.
“And now – let me tell you – with a certain hypocrisy, the PSD comes to the national level to say that it wants to lower taxes, but here, where it has the power, here where it had the possibility of lowering taxes, it didn’t do it,” he warned.
The IL leader stressed that the party’s position on the “need to lower taxes” has always been “very clear” and is valid for both the mainland and Madeira, where it is counting on electing a parliamentary group.
“That’s our ambition,” he said, then added: “We have a lot of ambition because we really want to transform Madeira, to [be] a more prosperous region, a more ambitious region, where success is valued, where people have the freedom to grow politically, economically and socially.”
Rui Rocha said, on the other hand, that the Liberal Initiative has “no intention of participating in any pre-election understanding”, but, in the event of electing MPs, it will evaluate each measure being debated in parliament “on its merits”.
“We don’t care who proposes or who doesn’t propose. What matters to us is that we look at each of the measures under discussion and the parliamentary group of the Liberal Initiative will certainly evaluate them with common sense, always from the perspective of economic growth, social growth and political growth in the region,” he said.
IL ran for the first time in the regional elections in 2019, without winning any mandate.
Madeira’s legislative elections take place on September 24, with 13 candidates vying for the 47 seats in the regional parliament, in a single constituency.
PTP, JPP, BE, PS, Chega, RIR, MPT, ADN, PSD/CDS-PP (Somos Madeira coalition), PAN, Livre, CDU (PCP/PEV) and IL are the political forces standing for election.
In the previous regional elections in 2019, the Social Democrats elected 21 deputies, losing for the first time the absolute majority they had held since 1976, and formed a coalition government with the CDS-PP (three deputies). The PS won 19 seats, the JPP three and the CDU one.
