Tax cuts and wage increases are the “big proposals” of CDS-PP.

The head of the CDS-PP list for the legislative elections in Madeira, José Manuel Rodríguez, this Sunday said that it is necessary to increase salaries and reduce taxes, justifying that the social reality in the region is “not good”.

“Madeira has experienced significant economic growth in recent years, but this has not had any impact on social reality. The social reality in Madeira is not very good,” José Manuel Rodrigues said in a statement to Lusa on the first day of the elections. Campaign as part of the initiative, which took place in the Boa Nova Church in Funchal.

The centrists contacted the population after the mass, “explaining to people” their proposals and asserting that voting for CDS-PP “is a safe vote,” he said.

The head of the list emphasized that, given the reality of poverty in Madeira and salaries below the national average, the CDS-PP presents as two “main proposals” an increase in revenues and, on the other hand, a reduction in taxes.

“We must increase wages in agreement with social partners and agree in a social agreement on the average value for the country, but we must also act in the tax sphere,” he emphasized.

The party proposes to apply the 30 percent continental tax differential provided for in the Regional Finance Law across all IRS and VAT categories. Currently, this difference only applies to the first four income tax bands.

As for VAT, Jose Manuel Rodriguez noted, the centrists in their election program propose to gradually reduce it until the end of the legislative body, by a total of 30%.

“Madeira had record tax revenues, it has never collected as much tax revenue as it does now, this is due to economic growth. So it’s time for the government [Regional] return income to families and citizens,” said the centrist, who has served as President of the Madeira Legislative Assembly since October 15, 2019.

“Also because we are going through a very difficult period, where there is an impoverishment of the middle class, and this is mainly due to the inflation that we have faced so far, the rise in interest rates, which naturally takes income away from the family, and many of them financially suffocating,” he emphasized.

The Madeira Legislative Assembly will take place on May 26, with 14 candidates vying for 47 seats in the regional parliament in one electoral district: ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, CDU (PCP/PEV), Chega, CDS. – PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP.

The early elections will take place eight months after the last regional legislative elections, after the President of the Republic dissolved the Parliament of Madeira following the political crisis provoked in January, when the leader of the regional government (PSD/CDU-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, was named as a defendant in the process, in during which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

In September 2023, the PSD/SDS coalition won without an absolute majority and elected 23 deputies. The PS received 11 mandates, the JPP five, Cega four, and the CDU, IL, PAN (which signed an agreement on parliamentary influence with the Social Democrats) and BE received one mandate each.