Ventura says Albuquerque should step down as Madeira leader ‘as quickly as possible’

This Monday, President Chegi expressed the opinion that Miguel Albuquerque should resign “as quickly as possible” from the post of chief executive of Madeira for reasons of “political hygiene”, as well as for the sake of the prestige of institutions and democracy.

“I think that [Miguel] Albuquerque must leave as quickly as possible for reasons of political hygiene. This is a matter of political hygiene and legitimacy,” Andre Ventura said on Monday.

The Chega leader, speaking to journalists at a press conference at the Chega/Azores headquarters in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, justified the departure of the President of the Madeira Executive “on the grounds that the process of selecting a successor is not “contaminated” by interests.

“Because any successor they choose in this context will always be chosen by a person infected by the same web, the same process, the same conspiracy of interests that are under suspicion,” he said.

In his opinion, “a certain sanitization of the dominant political class in Madeira has been justified for many, many decades.”

“And I regret that there are parties that are only concerned about their place in parliament and do not understand that it is necessary to return the voice to the people,” he said.

Andre Ventura also stated that “every additional minute of Miguel Albuquerque is a minute less for the prestige of Madeira’s institutions and the prestige of democracy.”

He recalled that Chega said “from the very beginning” of the process that “it is important that Miguel Albuquerque leaves.”

“Miguel Albuquerque is trying, with the collusion of the PSD, and this is unbearable, to cling to the place as much as possible. And if this is not the place, then this is his power within the SDP. We all understand this. If Albuquerque resigns as president of the regional government but remains president of the PSD/Madeira, he will effectively determine who becomes the next president of the regional government,” he said.

In his opinion, the future President of the Government, “which is the indicator of this PSD/Madeira, will be nothing more than a puppet in the hands” of the PSD Regional Political Commission.

“And therefore we needed an update. But for this update to exist, Luis Montenegro needed [presidente do PSD] there was something called courage,” he emphasized.

The President of the Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, formalized his resignation from his position this Monday with the representative of the Republic, but Ireneu Barreto decided that it would not take immediate effect, despite having accepted it.

Miguel Albuquerque was named as a defendant on Wednesday in an investigation into suspected corruption in Madeira, in a process that also led to the arrest of Funchal mayor Pedro Calado (NSD) and two businessmen linked to the civil construction sector. .

According to Article 62 of the Political-Administrative Statute of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the dismissal of the executive involves “the presentation of a request for dismissal by the President of the Regional Government.”