A resolution project delivered today in parliament by the party represented by sole deputy Filipe Sousa argues that successive national governments continue to “legislate and decide” on autonomous regions “without fundamental understanding, facts, knowledge, and experience of the real cost of living” in the Azores and Madeira.
“We continue to live in a country of multiple speeds, where being an islander is perceived by Terreiro do Paço as an exotic condition, when in reality it demands additional costs, logistical challenges, structural inequalities, scarce opportunities, and misunderstood vulnerabilities,” the party laments in the statement accompanying the initiative.
The JPP, therefore, calls for the creation of an “independent and multidisciplinary mission structure” to objectively and comparatively assess “the cost of being an islander” in the national and European context.
This structure, the party specifies, should include representatives of all parties with parliamentary seats, representatives from the governments of the Republic and autonomous regions, as well as “experts and individuals from academia and science with experience in regional economics, public finance, and territorial cohesion.”
The working group should quantify the “cost of health, education, transport, housing, construction, and other essential goods,” the “real differences compared to the mainland territory in fiscal and salary matters,” and “the impacts of these differences on household budgets, public policies, and the quality of life of island citizens.”
“Only with objective data can fair policies be demanded. Only with seriousness in numbers can centralist discourses be dismantled and the narrative that the islands live on subsidies be ended. What is lacking is not assistance — it is justice,” concludes the JPP.
Last Friday, the JPP also submitted another resolution project recommending the Government create a guarantee fund within the scope of the social mobility subsidy to “eliminate the requirement for residents and students of the autonomous regions to advance the full amount of airfare,” the party explains in a statement.
