During a press briefing following the PS political commission meeting, Paulo Cafôfo stated that it was unanimously decided that the PS will abstain in the generality and introduce proposals deemed by the party as structurally significant and “essential for improving people’s lives.”
“The final global vote will depend on the level of acceptance by the PSD of our proposals,” he added, noting that these proposals cover areas such as housing, health, support for the elderly and youth, and family incomes.
“This is not a blank check that the PS gives to the PSD, nor is it an agreement with the direction of this governance. It is, in fact, a political signal that we have given and will continue to provide during the budget debate, a political signal for the lives of Madeirans to improve with the contributions of the Socialist Party, because no one has a monopoly on wisdom, nor does anyone, even having won the elections, have a monopoly on solutions presented,” Cafôfo remarked.
Paulo Cafôfo assured that the socialist proposals are feasible from a financial and operational standpoint, emphasizing that the document belongs to the PSD/CDS-PP majority and that the PS does not seek to replace it, but rather improve it with its contributions.
“We will see if the arrogance of the PSD will be the path that the Government and the PSD choose, rejecting and not accepting our proposals, or if they will take this opportunity to, with our initiatives, improve the document, which rightfully belongs to them because they won the elections, but can be improved with our proposals,” he pointed out.
The president of PS/Madeira further stated that the Regional Government, led by Miguel Albuquerque, has removed some commitments from this year’s Regional Budget, as presented at the end of last year, which was ultimately rejected as the PSD did not have a majority.
“Now that they know they have an absolute majority, they no longer care about the commitments they had with the people, many of them made during the election campaign, and which have now been removed from this document,” he criticized.
Madeira has been managed since the beginning of the year on a monthly one-twelfth budget basis.
The debate on Madeira’s Budget proposals for 2025, amounting to 2.533 billion euros, and the Investment and Development Expenditure Plan and Program, budgeted at 1.044 billion euros, is scheduled for June 16, 17, 18, and 20.
The documents were submitted by the Finance Secretary, Duarte Freitas, to the Legislative Assembly on June 2 and are guaranteed to be approved, as the PSD and CDS-PP have formed a parliamentary and governance agreement following the early regional elections on March 23, securing an absolute majority.
The regional parliament, with 47 seats in the chamber, comprises 23 PSD deputies, 11 JPP representatives, eight from the PS, three from Chega, one from CDS-PP, and one from IL.
