The president of the Parliament of Madeira, José Manuel Rodrigues, criticized today the way the process of enlargement of the autonomy is being conducted by the State, stressing that this is one of the challenges that “urgently needs to be attended to and solved”.
“When we expected a revision of the Constitution that would increase the legislative powers of the region, including fiscal powers, and put an end to centralist complexes and unnecessary conflicts, we have a revision that was carried out behind closed doors in the back offices of São Bento, that will come to nothing and will be another failure,” he said.
José Manuel Rodrigues was speaking at the solemn session of the Day of the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Madeiran Communities, which marks the 604th anniversary of the discovery of the island, in which he said the region had an “excellent recovery in the post-pandemic [of covid-19], resisted well the consequences of the war in Ukraine and has recorded remarkable growth rates in various economic sectors.
The president of the Madeiran parliament alerted, however, to the fact that there are always problems and challenges that must be attended to and solved”, among which he pointed out the need to provide better conditions for the middle class, to keep young people in the region, and to strengthen autonomy.
“When we expected the Republic to guarantee the principle of territorial continuity and equality among all Portuguese citizens, namely in terms of mobility and air and sea transport of people and goods, what we are witnessing is an impasse and an attempt to put off this problem forever,” he said.
José Manuel Rodrigues considered that the XII Legislature, which ends with the regional elections that will be scheduled for September or October, will be marked by the delay in the enlargement of autonomy at the level of State institutions.
“When we were expecting a revision of the Autonomous Regions’ Finances Law that would correct the injustices practiced towards Madeira, ensure that the costs of insularity and the costs of sovereignty would be covered, and ensure that the State assumes the costs of its constitutional duties towards the Portuguese on the islands, what we have is a denial of our just claims,” he said.
The president of the Legislative Assembly also criticized the Constitutional Court for having declared unconstitutional the norms of the so-called Law of the Sea regarding the joint management of the maritime space between the State and the autonomous regions, stating that it is an “example of a highly restrictive jurisprudence” that shows “the strange alienation of some and the usual mistrust of others”.
“Facing this reality, one might think that this was a lost legislature. Nothing could be more wrong, since it was a legislature that served for this legislative assembly to exhaustively justify the fairness of our rights, to present concrete proposals to solve problems that are the State’s responsibility, and to reaffirm the strength of our reason,” he declared.
On the other hand, on a regional level, José Manuel Rodrigues said that the settlement of young people in the archipelago, through better jobs and more income, is a goal that must be reached “to guarantee the sustainability of development and ensure the creation of levels of wealth” that allow “the correction of inequalities and strengthen social cohesion.
“If we lose social peace and balance between classes, we pave the way for the growth of populisms and I am sure that the majority of Madeirans do not want the future of their land dependent on these radicalisms,” said José Manuel Rodrigues, who holds the position of president of the Legislative Assembly on the nomination of the CDS-PP, under the governing coalition with the PSD, established in 2019, when the Social Democrats lost their absolute majority for the first time since 1976.
The official also said that the middle class is “asphyxiated” by inflationary pressure and rising interest rates, warning that one cannot “have prices rising at elevator speed and wages growing at stair pace.”
Prime Minister salutes all Madeirans on the Day of the Autonomous Region
