The PSD Regional Council is today choosing a name to lead the government of Madeira

This Monday, the PSD/Madeira Regional Council will choose a name to propose to head the Madeira executive, after Miguel Albuquerque was named as a defendant in an investigation into allegations of corruption and announced that he would leave his post.

The meeting of the Social Democratic Regional Council will take place at the Madeira Congress Center in Funchal, and the name proposed to lead the regional government is expected to be announced later in the day.

Miguel Albuquerque has led the regional government since 2015 and was re-elected in elections on September 24 last year.

The PSD/Madeira leader also announced that he would resign as president of the executive branch on Friday, two days after he was named as a defendant in an investigation into allegations of corruption, abuse of power, malfeasance, attacks on the rule of law, etc. other crimes.

The trial also involves two businessmen and the mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado (FNC), three of whom were detained in a police operation launched on January 24, mainly in Madeira, but also in the Azores and several cities on the continent.

Although Miguel Albuquerque had repeatedly guaranteed that he would not resign from the moment his accusation was made public until the announcement that he would leave his post, PAN’s threat to terminate the parliamentary protection agreement with the PSD changed “the circumstances.”

“When I said I would not resign, I had a structure of parliamentary stability that allowed me to govern. Since this structure has changed, I have to think about Madeira, the stability and progress of our people,” explained Miguel Albuquerque on Friday. .

The agreement between the PAN and the PSD allows the coalition governing the region, the PSD/CDU-PP, to have an absolute majority in the regional parliament.

However, on Thursday PAN/Madeira judged that Miguel Albuquerque was no longer fit to remain in office, indicating that he would only continue to ensure the viability of the parliamentary influence agreement if a new leader was appointed to the executive.

Meanwhile, PS/Madeira, the largest opposition party, has already demanded new elections, refusing to accept that the PSD/CDS-PP coalition continues to lead the government even without Miguel Albuquerque.

“We cannot tolerate double standards in this country. When the Prime Minister [António Costa] he resigned, the Assembly of the Republic was dissolved and legislative elections were called. Why won’t it be like this in Madeira?” asks the leader of the largest opposition party in Madeira’s parliament (it holds 11 of the hemisphere’s 47 seats), Paulo Cafofo.

Also on Friday, when Miguel Albuquerque’s decision to leave his post was still unknown, the PS expressed a vote of no confidence in the regional government in the Parliament of Madeira.

In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, elections for the Legislative Assembly took place on September 24, so a possible dissolution could only occur after March 24, according to a law that prohibits the dissolution of parliaments within six months of elections.

On Friday evening, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said that he was not taking a position on Madeira’s political future, in order to give the regional parliament the opportunity to approve the region’s budget between 6 and 9 February.

“If you want not to kill the budget [regional]the regional government must be fully functional within 15 days,” recalled Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in an interview with CNN, drawing a parallel between the political situation on the continent and in Madeira and recalling that after the resignation of António Costa as Prime Minister, the Minister postponed the official date of resignation government to allow time for the state budget to be approved at the end of December and to allow the PS to choose a new leader.