The Madeira Liberal Initiative (IL/Madeira) said this Wednesday that holding elections to the regional parliament is “the only way” to “correct what has become quite crooked”, during a meeting with the President of the Republic in Lisbon. .
This Wednesday, the President of the Republic hears the parties with seats in the Parliament of Madeira, facing the possibility of dissolving the Legislative Assembly after the political crisis caused by the dismissal of Miguel Albuquerque as President of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP) in January, after he was named as a defendant in a judicial investigation into suspected corruption in the archipelago.
Leaving a meeting with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the sole deputy of IL Madeira, Nuno Morna, stressed that the party said to the President this Wednesday the same thing that it has said for the last two months.
“We first paused to see what the majority was proposing in terms of ensuring the normal functioning of the institutions of autonomy. After a certain point, or after about a week, when there was no data. In the sense, with a budget that we did not make. I don’t know if we will whether we discuss and approve or not, from then on we began to demand elections because we believe that this is the only way to legitimize and correct what was quite crooked,” said the IL/Madeira leader.
In addition to listening to the nine parties represented – SDP, SDS-PP, PS, JPP, Chega, CDU, IL, PAN (which has a parliamentary influence agreement with the SDP that guarantees the SDS/SDS-PP executive an absolute majority) and BE – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will convene the Council of State, the political advisory body of the head of state.
The hearings of the President of the Republic, with the participation of the parties with seats in Parliament, take place from 10 am this Wednesday in order of increasing representation: they began with BE at 10 am, followed by PAN, IL and PCP.
You’ll still hear CDS-PP and Chega in addition to JPP, PS and PSD in the afternoon.
At 18:00 there will be a meeting of the Council of State, an advisory body to the president, which will evaluate the scenario for the dissolution of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Madeira and the call for early elections.
If Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa decides not to dissolve the regional parliament, the representative of the Republic, Ireneu Barreto, will appoint, as announced in February, “the president and other members of the new regional government.”
The head of state restored the right to dissolve the archipelago’s parliament this week, six months after regional elections were held in Madeira on September 24, 2023.
On Monday, Miguel Albuquerque said that there is no reason for the early adoption of the Madeira law and announced that negotiations are in the final stages to assure the President of the Republic that the absolute majority formed by the PSD and SDS-PP will remain with the parliamentary support of the PAN.
On the same day, PAN’s sole deputy, Mónica Freitas, refused to enter into any formal agreement with the PSD, but admitted that she was prepared to make the regional government’s program and budget viable if elections did not take place. The party previously said it would only maintain the understanding if Albuquerque stepped down as executive president.
Madeira’s opposition defended early elections.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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