The new proposed Madeira Government Programme (PSD), which is the result of negotiations with other parties, will be discussed and voted on Thursday, the president of the regional Legislative Assembly, José Manuel Rodrigues, said on Tuesday.
“It will begin with a 15-minute speech by the Prime Minister, followed by a period of requests for clarification, which can be addressed either to the Prime Minister or to the regional secretaries,” the Speaker of Parliament explained.
José Manuel Rodrigues spoke after a conference of representatives of the parties with seats in the Legislative Assembly – PSD, PS, JPP, Chega, CDS-PP, IL and PAN – in Funchal. The rules for the debate, which will be held on the same day, were approved by a majority vote, with JPP abstaining.
The new proposal of the Madeira Government’s programme will be presented to the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
The debate will begin at 9am on Thursday, with a final session and vote on the document in the form of a vote of confidence taking place in the afternoon.
The budget of the autonomous region of Madeira for 2024 could be discussed and voted on later this month, according to the speaker of parliament.
“The idea is that if the government program is adopted, the regional budget can be discussed in the third week of July or the last week of July,” said José Manuel Rodríguez, and then reinforced: “There will be a regional budget in July if the government program is approved next Thursday.”
On the 19th, the Chief Executive of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, announced the withdrawal of the Programme from the debate that had been taking place in the regional parliament for two days, with a vote scheduled for the following day.
The document will be rejected because the PS, JPP and Chega, with a total of 24 deputies out of 47 in the semicircle (which corresponds to an absolute majority), have declared their vote against.
In this scenario, the regional government invited the parties with seats in parliament to meetings to reach consensus on the government program. The PS and JPP rejected the offer. After negotiations (without Miguel Albuquerque present at the meetings), the sole IL deputy announced that he would abstain, and the PAN candidate indicated his willingness to make the offer viable.
Chega sent out an announcement to put the vote to the parliament of the archipelago.
In the early regional elections on May 26, the SDP elected 19 deputies, giving it five terms to achieve an absolute majority, PS managed 11, AKP nine, Çega four and SDS-NP two, while IL and PAN elected one deputy each.
Following the vote, the SDP signed a parliamentary agreement with the Christian Democrats, but still lacked an absolute majority. The two parties have a combined 21 seats.
The May elections come eight months after the Madeiran legislative elections on 24 September 2023, after the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa dissolved the Madeiran Parliament following a political crisis that arose in January when Miguel Albuquerque was named as a defendant in a case of alleged corruption.
The Social Democrat resigned in February and the then leader was in charge.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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