“The priority is, in fact, maintaining stability,” emphasized the social democrat Rubina Leal, who was elected president of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira on Thursday. She noted that this is what the public demands for the coming four years.
“And, obviously, that is what I will prioritize, with total impartiality and neutrality, maintaining a relationship with all institutions and cooperating with all institutions,” she added.
Rubina Leal, the first woman to hold the position since the establishment of the autonomous regime in 1976, spoke to journalists at the Palácio de São Lourenço in Funchal following a meeting with the representative of the Republic for Madeira, Ireneu Barreto, for a courtesy introduction.
The newly elected president of the island’s parliament also highlighted the importance of reactivating several pending matters which are true instruments for the economic, social, political, and cultural development of the archipelago, such as the review of the Regional Finance Law, though she did not provide details.
“This is one of the issues that will be reactivated and discussed in due course,” she stated, without confirming whether it was one of the topics addressed in the meeting with the counsel judge, which lasted over an hour.
Rubina Leal indicated that her relationship with Ireneu Barreto “goes beyond institutional relations,” and therefore she declined to share all the topics of their meeting, emphasizing, however, that they mainly concern “future cooperation and institutional relations.”
The president of the Madeiran parliament also acknowledged that “there are always things to fine-tune” in the relationship between the institutions, namely between the Regional Legislative Assembly and the representative of the Republic, which will contribute to the “success of the mandate.”
Nominated by the PSD, Rubina Leal was elected with 39 votes in favor and eight blank votes from a total of 47 deputies in the Madeiran legislature. The election, which utilized a secret ballot placed in an urn, took place during the first plenary meeting of the XV Legislature, resulting from the early regional elections held on March 23.
The PSD won the election by securing 23 seats, just one short of an absolute majority, and formed a parliamentary and governmental agreement with the CDS-PP, which obtained one seat in the Legislative Assembly.
The accord ensures an absolute majority in the regional parliament, also represented by the JPP with 11 deputies, now the main opposition party, the PS with eight seats, Chega with three, and the IL with one seat.
The social democrat deputy succeeds the Christian democrat José Manuel Rodrigues, who held the position of president of the regional parliament since 2019, following agreements between the CDS-PP and PSD, the party that has governed the region since 1976.
On Tuesday, the Regional Government, again led by Miguel Albuquerque, will take office at the Legislative Assembly of Madeira at 4:00 PM.
