Just one vote among the 57 deputies in the Azores regional parliament could be enough to plunge that autonomous region into a political crisis unprecedented in its democratic history. If all the announcements already made are confirmed, the 2024 regional budget will fail next Thursday (28 votes against, 27 votes in favor and two abstentions). This is already seen as inevitable.
What is not known is how the President of the Republic will solve the problem afterwards. Marcelo has two possible routes: either dissolve the regional parliament and call early regional elections (which could be held around February 2024); Or it does not dissolve and gives the regional government, led by José Manuel Bolieiro (PSD), the opportunity to submit a second budget proposal, and has ninety days to do so. There are no certainties except this: Marcelo will summon delegations from parties with seats in the regional parliament (PS, PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, BE, PAN, PPM and Liberal Initiative) to Belém.
In the PS of the Azores, the belief is that Marcelo will go ahead to early elections if he is reasonably convinced that the first lead in the budget will inevitably be followed by a second, wasting time to give Bolieiro a second chance .
The archipelago’s PSD assumes the opposite: that Marcelo will be more inclined to let Bolieiro submit a second proposal, confident that he will be able to get approval in this situation – and thus avoid ending up in a situation where the region have to spend a few months in the twelfths in 2024. One thing is certain: on Thursday, if the regional budget is rejected, José Manuel Bolieiro will not resign. First, he will tell the President of the Republic that it is his duty to comply with the provision of the Regional Budget Framework Law: submit a new proposal within 90 days.
Right-wing “geringonça”
The political situation in the Azores during the current legislature has been difficult from the start. During the last regional legislature, on October 25, the PS, which had been in power in the archipelago since 1996, won again. However, with only 25 elected officials, there were four short of an absolute majority (29). In fact, the left as a whole (PS+BE) also fell short, with a total of no more than 27 deputies.
Thus, a right-wing ‘construction’ was organized, in which the second most voted party, the PSD (21 elected), formed a government in coalition with the PPM (two elected) and CDS-PP (three elected). A parliamentary agreement from the PSD with the elected representatives of Chega (2), PAN (1) and IL (1) was added to this coalition agreement. All together: 30 deputies supporting the return of the PSD to power after a 24-year absence.
Afterwards, one of Chega’s two deputies broke with the party and became independent (but still voted for the budget); Chega’s other deputy in turn promises not to vote in favor and to abstain; the PAN delegate broke the parliamentary agreement with the PS (by abstaining) and also with the IL (by voting against). All things considered, everything indicates that the budget failed with 28 votes against, 27 votes in favor and two abstentions.
It will be the first time that this has happened in an autonomous region. And never before has a parliamentary term been interrupted by early elections.
Source: DN
