The PS/Madeira this Wednesday accused the regional government (PSD/CDS-PP) of “burying its head in the sand” and of being “unable” to deal with the “galloping” rise in insecurity and drug abuse in the region to solve.
“The problems of insecurity and drug addiction are not only not solved, but are getting worse at a galloping and worrying way,” said Deputy Sérgio Gonçalves, leader of the Madeiran Socialists, during a political intervention at the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of the archipelago, in Funchal.
Sérgio Gonçalves believed that the regional government was “burying its head in the sand, unable” to deal with a situation that the socialist saw as a “more visible consequence of the PSD’s irresponsible and insignificant governance for more than 45 years ” – a management that, in his opinion, is “worn and outdated”.
The MP said Madeira is “a region where insecurity is visibly on the rise and drug use is four times higher than in the rest of the country”.
Every day, he added, there are reports of “people being robbed, establishments vandalized and robbed, tourists attacked, youths involved in fights outside schools and drug addicts consuming openly in the streets of the city” of Funchal.
According to the socialists, the scenario also affects Madeira as a tourist destination and the regional executive “keeps silent and tries to hide the reality”.
“On the one hand we have a stunned government, on the other hand we see a mayor of Funchal [o social-democrata Pedro Calado] which, absurdly, suggests that the army is patrolling the streets of the city as a way of controlling the situation,” he argued.
The deputy underlined that “the insecurity cannot be solved by putting the troops on the street”, so the municipality shows “clear signs of authoritarianism”.
“The solution is not to padlock streets,” he insisted, arguing that “it is urgent to change the way of looking at and dealing with the problem” of drug addiction, with the promotion of differentiated treatment , outside the hospital context, with a multidisciplinary team and specialized technicians, focused on their social reintegration and family support.
According to the PS, the two parties that govern the archipelago “prefer to let people grip the dependence on welfare and the misery they have created over the years, rather than undermining the integral development of the region and the improvement of promote the living conditions of every Madeiran and Porto Santo”.
The regional socialist leader mentioned that the PSD/CDS majority has rejected the party’s proposals to mitigate these problems, namely the establishment of a municipal police in Funchal and a therapeutic community for social reintegration, “so that it is possible to take a different approach regarding the growing problem of addictive behaviour”.
Source: DN
