The president of Madeira’s parliament said today that ‘the three d’s of April 25 – democratize, decolonize and develop – have been replaced by three others – discredit, disbelief and discontent – and considered that to ignore this is to enter a “state of denial”.
“Citizens have no faith in the way the legislative, executive and judicial powers are being exercised. The vast majority of citizens don’t believe in the institutions and their representatives and are suspicious of the way their representatives carry out their duties in office,” said José Manuel Rodrigues.
The president of the regional parliament was speaking at the solemn session commemorating the 50th anniversary of April 25, which this year took place in the main hall, the Legislative Assembly having been dissolved since March 27 following the political crisis triggered by the case investigating suspected corruption in the archipelago, in which the president of the PSD/CDS-PP executive, the Social Democrat Miguel Albuquerque, was made a defendant.
José Manuel Rodrigues, who holds the position of president of parliament on the recommendation of the CDS-PP, said that to ignore the discredit, disbelief and discontent of the citizens is to enter a “state of denial”.
“This will only lead to a greater distance between the institutions and their representatives and the people who choose and elect them,” he warned, and then added: “I believe that there is an urgent need to reform and modernize our political-constitutional system, leading to a strengthening of our legislative, executive and judicial institutions, which are essential pillars of our democracy.”
José Manuel Rodrigues argued that, following the early elections on May 26 in Madeira, the parties with representation in parliament should sign a pact for democracy and autonomy, with a view to revising the Constitution and extending the legislative and fiscal powers and competences of the autonomous regions.
“But it is crucial that this pact also involves deepening democracy in Madeira, introducing more transparency and integrity in the exercise of public office, through a system of incompatibilities and a register of interests for MPs and government officials, clearly establishing the separation between political power and economic power and making the common good prevail over any private interest,” he said.
In particular, the president of parliament recalled the 19,000 Madeirans who work, but receive a salary that is not enough to pay their basic monthly expenses, as well as the 73,000 who live in poverty or social exclusion and the 13,000 of our elderly with low pensions.
“The economic growth of Madeira and Porto Santo in recent years and the increase in Gross Domestic Product are indisputable, but it is also undeniable that we must continue to improve justice and equity in the distribution of the wealth created,” he said.
During the solemn session marking the 50th anniversary of April 25th, representatives of the nine parties sitting in the Legislative Assembly also spoke: PSD, PS, JPP, Chega, PCP, IL, BE and PAN, the party that signed a parliamentary agreement with the Social Democrats, making the coalition executive viable.
Social Democrat MP Vera Duarte said that the PSD, the party that has governed the region since 1976, had made use of democracy and autonomy to turn Madeira into one of the “most developed lands in Europe”, while Socialist Victor Freitas considered that “April has yet to be fulfilled” because there has never been political alternation in the governance of the archipelago.
For the JPP, Élvio Sousa criticized the state’s “imperialist and colonialist tics”, declaring that “Portugal is not a unitary state”, but a “centralist” one.
Miguel Castro, from Chega, warned of corruption, which he considered to be the “main cause of the ethical corrosion of the institutions of governance”, a theme also addressed by the PCP’s sole deputy, Ricardo Lume, who warned of the “scandalous and unfair” distribution of wealth in Madeira.
For his part, centrist MP Lopes da Fonseca warned that the region could go through a “period of government instability” after the May 26 elections and called the President of the Republic’s decision to dissolve parliament arbitrary.
PAN’s Mónica Freitas focused her speech on the defense of women’s rights, while IL’s Nuno Morna declared, in a poetic speech, that “April is not a month, it’s a promise”, and BE’s Roberto Almada said that the values of the revolution must “continue to be defended every day”.
