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Madeiran opposition says regional parliament blocked by PSD/CDS

Madeiran opposition says regional parliament blocked by PSD/CDS

Camara de Lobos - Island of Madeira

The opposition parties in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira (PS, JPP and PCP) considered today that the regional parliament, at the end of its term, “failed” in its objectives and was blocked by the PSD / CDS majority.

“The Legislative Assembly of Madeira [ALM] has failed in its role of promoting more and better democracy. It failed because we had a PSD/CDS majority defending only electoral actions and party interests,” said the parliamentary leader of the PS, the largest opposition party (it occupies 19 of the 47 seats in the hemicycle).

Rui Caetano was speaking at the commemorative session of the Day of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which marked the end of the XII legislature. The President of the Republic has scheduled the regional legislative elections for September 24.

The head of the Socialist bench said that the ALM was “blocked and walled by two coalition parties, a majority that was subject to the interests of the Regional Government (PSD / CDS)”.

Rui Caetano considered that the spaces of the regional parliament were opened to many cultural and artistic initiatives and became a “party hall and the like”, but failed to promote more democracy, nor more respect from the regional government.

The parliamentarian stressed that the “wall of centralist blocking of the majority” prevented a better fulfillment of its role of oversight of the performance of the Regional Government and said that the PS presented more than 700 proposals, which were rejected, with the parliament “lost another opportunity to make a difference”.

For the JPP, Rafael Nunes criticized the internal policy of the ALM, stating that it boiled down to “parliamentary discussion limited only and exclusively to matters that deserved the prior permission of the regional executive”, blocking opposition proposals.

The deputy censured the “self-closure of parliament to the democratic participation of citizens, blocking one of the most elementary tools – the right to petition”, in addition to the refusal to hear members of the Regional Government and to discuss proposals presented by the opposition, “disapproving measures without any kind of argument or any kind of justification”.

“A parliament that diminishes, blocks and transforms pluralistic democracy and the constitutional consecration of the status and right of the opposition into a mere utopia. It is impossible for there to be a better incubator for the discredit and disbelief of politics and its actors “, he maintained.

The PCP’s single deputy, Ricardo Lume, pointed out that this was the political force that saw the most initiatives discussed, in a total of 219 diplomas, almost all of them failed by the PSD / CDS majority and some by the other opposition parties.

Ricardo Lume also considered that, although one of the priorities of the president of the ALM was to open the parliament to society and it registered “more visits, exhibitions, colloquia and conferences, the legislative building remained under lock and key and has as jailer the PSD and CDS”.

As for the CDS/PP, a party that is part of the coalition of the Regional Government, Ana Cristina Monteiro defended the importance of the autonomous regions having “an active and influential voice in the organs of national power, especially in a context in which the Government of the Republic does not fulfill its obligations and responsibilities”.

The centrist criticized the incoherence of the opposition parties with parliamentary representation in Madeira, “who demand in the Assembly what they are not able to demand from the Republic”.

Contrary to the opposition’s positions, PSD MP José Prada said the party “has fulfilled its role and has clearly and forthrightly assumed, during this legislature, those that are its main political flags”.

The MP also criticized the State, “which does not respect the value of autonomies, does not consider its Autonomous Regions and, in the case of Madeira, fails across the board with the commitments it has to fulfill”.

“From the point of view of the greater dignification of the Legislative Assembly, both in terms of the elevation of political debate and the progressive openness and proximity of elected representatives, to the daily reality of Madeirans, I am sure that the PSD has fulfilled and will continue to fulfill its role”, he concluded.

In this commemorative session, the anthems of Portugal and Madeira were sung, with the presence of the Regional Secretaries of Education, Jorge Carvalho (PSD) – who oversees Parliamentary Affairs – and the Sea, Teófilo Cunha (CDS-PP).

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