The PCP insists on early elections in Madeira and allows a new leader only as a transitional solution

PCP Secretary General Paulo Raimundo insisted this Friday on the need for early elections in Madeira, arguing that the creation of a new executive can only be a solution until it is constitutionally possible to dissolve the regional parliament.

“There is only one way out – to give the people the right to vote. [convocar] elections. It is clear that there are constitutional time limits that do not allow us to solve this problem now, but it is necessary to give the people the right to vote,” said Paulo Raimundo, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a contact action with users and workers at the Dr. Nelio Mendonça Hospital in Funchal .

Asked if he was confident that the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, would dissolve Parliament in March following the resignation of the President of the Regional Government (PSD/SDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, after he was charged in a process investigating suspicions of corruption, the Secretary General of the PCP said that the statements of the head of state “open this prospect.”

“The President of the Republic cannot simply look at formal aspects, he must look at the current situation, which is obviously due to the fact that the SDP, SDS and PAN majority no longer have the conditions to govern,” he believes.

The SDP/CDU-NP coalition won the elections on September 24, 2023, but was one deputy short of an absolute majority, and this circumstance led to the signing of an agreement on parliamentary advocacy with the only MHP deputy.

According to the communist leader, the situation created in Madeira “is not the problem of the protagonists, it is also a problem of political options”, so the constitution of the new executive could “be an immediate solution until a period comes that constitutionally allows the dissolution of parliament and calling elections.”

At least until March 24, the President of the Republic cannot officially issue a decree dissolving the Legislative Assembly of the region. Article 172 of the Constitution specifies that no Assembly may be dissolved “within six months after its election”, which happened in Madeira during the legislative elections of 24 September 2023.

Paulo Raimundo also stressed that the ongoing trial on suspicion of corruption “must be taken to the limit of investigation” and expressed the hope that “all political, legal and criminal consequences will follow as a result.”

When asked whether the PCP opens up the possibility of concluding agreements in the event of early elections to regional legislative bodies, especially with the PS, which has already announced this several times, Paulo Raimundo replied that he is ready for everything that is “positive for the party.” Madeirans.”

“Now there is something that the CDU has never done and will never do, for all its good and bad. We do not sign blank checks under any circumstances, and for us, before the problem of form, the content is important. And we don’t want any signature on anything negative, no matter where it comes from,” he added.

On January 24, the judicial police carried out some 130 searches in and outside homes, mainly in Madeira, but also in the Azores and several areas of the continent, as part of an investigation into suspicions of active and passive corruption, economic involvement in business activities, malfeasance, receiving or offering an undue advantage, abuse of power and undue influence.

The defendants were Miguel Albuquerque and the then president of the Chamber of Funchal Pedro Calado (PSD), who had already resigned from his position, the head of the AFA construction group Avelino Fariña and the main shareholder of a group associated with civil construction were also arrested.