“O Partido Socialista vai fazer na oposição uma marcação cerrada a este governo, aos atos deste governo, uma marcação cerrada com uma fiscalização rigorosa, muita determinada e fundamentada”, declarou Paulo Cafôfo.
The leader of the Madeira Socialists was speaking to journalists in Funchal at the Palácio de São Lourenço, the official residence of the Republic’s representative for Madeira, Ireneu Barreto. Today, Barreto is meeting with the six parties that secured seats in the Legislative Assembly in Sunday’s early regional elections and will issue a statement afterward.
The PS, securing eight deputies and dropping from the second to the third most voted political force in the archipelago, indicated to the representative that its opposition approach would also be “constructive.”
“We will submit many proposals in the Legislative Assembly to improve the lives of the people of Madeira and Porto Santo, because that’s why we were elected,” said Paulo Cafôfo. He added, “I hope that this Regional Government is open not only to dialogue but to accepting opposition proposals and that we don’t face an absolutist majority that rejects everything coming from the Socialist Party.”
In the Sunday elections, the PSD won 23 seats, falling one short of an absolute majority, and subsequently signed a parliamentary and governmental agreement with CDS-PP, which secured one seat, thus ensuring an absolute majority.
“The Socialist Party accepts the results of these elections democratically, as it should be, and respects the decision of the people of Madeira,” stated Paulo Cafôfo, pointing out that a new government led by the regional leader of the PSD, Miguel Albuquerque, now has “all the conditions to govern and there are no excuses not to solve the problems of the people of Madeira and Porto Santo.”
“And I emphasize ‘no excuses’,” he stressed.
Paulo Cafôfo then highlighted various issues the PS aims to see addressed by the new majority, including the medical waiting lists, lack of medicines, problematic discharges, housing shortages, public sector salary and career improvement, farmer income increases, and tax reductions.
The Republic’s representative for the autonomous region is receiving delegates today from PSD (23 deputies elected on Sunday), JPP (11), PS (eight), Chega (three), CDS-PP (one), and IL (one).
On Tuesday, two days post-election, the regional structures of PSD and CDS-PP formalized a post-election agreement that guarantees a parliamentary majority in the region, which includes integrating the archipelago’s Christian Democrats leader, José Manuel Rodrigues, into the executive.
These elections were the third legislative round held in Madeira in about a year and a half, with 14 lists contesting in a single circle: CDU (PCP/PEV), PSD, Livre, JPP, Nova Direita, PAN, Força Madeira (PTP/MPT/RIR), PS, IL, PPM, BE, Chega, ADN, and CDS-PP.
The suffrage occurred 10 months after the previous one, following the approval of a motion of no confidence submitted by Chega, justified by judicial investigations involving members of the Regional Government, including Miguel Albuquerque, and the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly by the President of the Republic.
In the regional legislative elections, the Republic’s representative invites a political force to form a government based on the results, after consulting with parties holding parliamentary seats.
