The Secretary General of the PS said this Saturday that it is “abnormal” that Madeira is the poorest region of the country and blamed the current president of the regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, for this, adding that the PSD president is “ashamed” of this candidate.
“Madeira is the poorest region in the country, and here they cannot blame the socialists either, the responsibility lies with the PSD. The responsibility lies with Miguel Albuquerque, and he knows it. He knows that the responsibility is for us, who have the poorest in Madeira. He knows so much that he is trying to normalize it,” said Pedro Nuno Santos at a rally in support of the PS/Madeira candidacy for the May 26 regional elections, led by Paulo Cafofo, in Funchal.
The rally took place in the square next to the Madeira Legislative Assembly, with about two hundred supporters and party activists raising the white and red flags of the PS and the Autonomous Region of Madeira, as well as the remains of gerberas distributed during the election rally. carried out this morning.
The country’s risk of poverty rose to 17% last year, putting another 60,000 people at risk of falling into poverty, a reality affecting mostly women, according to the Portugal Social Balance 2023 report presented this week.
Poverty rates are nearly 10 percentage points above the national average in Madeira, the region with the highest rates in Portugal, and nine percentage points above the national average in the Azores.
From the pulpit, the PS Secretary General made a 13-minute speech in support of Cafofo, highlighting his “government experience” and “proven experience” as President of the Funchal City Council and Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities: We know, anywhere in the world, who he is Paulo Cafofo.”
Pedro Nuno Santos criticized the PSD/Madeira, in particular the leadership of Albuquerque (who resigned and returned to the top of the list), and, as he did this morning, considered the absence of PSD national leader Luis Montenegro from the electoral campaign. due to the fact that he is “ashamed” to appear next to the chairman of the regional government (who is resigning and accused in the process of investigating alleged corruption).
“The national leader of the PSD is not here, this is not because his candidate in Madeira does not need or no longer needs a cane, but because he is embarrassed to appear next to him. He does not want. It’s not just that it happened now in the legislative elections, it happened at the PSD/Madeira Congress, and now during the campaign in Madeira. […] National political leaders are proud, they want to be here, there are those who are not because they do not believe in their candidate,” he emphasized.
“They have been in power for 48 years, and they do not end those 48 years with pride. They don’t end well. Even in Lisbon they are not proud of the work that PSD/Madeira has done in these 48 years,” he added.
According to the leader, “the time has come” to change the way we govern and how we live in Madeira, but also to guarantee political, economic and social stability in the region: “What applies to the PSD of Madeira is what applies today to Miguel Albuquerque , is incompetence and instability.”
In addition to the fact that the PSD is responsible for poverty, Pedro Nuno Santos highlighted the “failure” to solve housing and health problems, noting that “Madeira has lost 17,000 inhabitants in almost a decade, the vast majority of them young”, and considering that the region’s economic development model “exhausted” and “needs to be more than just tourism and real estate.”
Fourteen candidates are vying for 47 regional parliament seats in one constituency: ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, CDU (PCP/PEV), Chega, CDS-PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP.
In 2023, the SDP/CDU coalition won without an absolute majority and elected 23 deputies. The PS received 11 mandates, the JPP five and Cega four, while the CDU, IL, PAN (which signed an agreement on parliamentary influence with the Social Democrats) and BE received one mandate each.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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