If necessary to maintain the majority, will you admit or rule out a post-election parliamentary agreement with Chega? Neither yes, nor no, nor maybe. This is the response from Miguel Albuquerque, who prefers not to respond at this point. But if now, months before the regional elections, he opts for silence – not for definitively refusing an alliance – then in 2020 it was clear: “Anything that is coalitions in the sense of defeating the left in Portugal is welcome” ; in 2021 he asked that Chega be “respected”; and more recently, last year, admitted that [no PSD] “we must always open bridges of dialogue. This stigmatization of Chega comigo does not work (…) it is a legal party, like any other party. We don’t need to have complexes”.
Miguel Albuquerque, who says, “You don’t need the CDS [parceiro de coligação no governo regional] to live” – he will explain why later -, Chega has the guarantee that André Ventura has given to DN that “we will always be part of the solution and never part of the problem. If this scenario [o PSD não conseguir maioria] when it comes to verification, Chega will assess whether there are political conditions for forming a government with the PSD”.
Of the PSD’s current and former leaders, whom DN has contacted, none would publicly assume “disagreement” or “understanding” that Miguel Albuquerque, who also serves as president of the Congressional Council and a member of the National Political Commission, refuses to make arrangements with the He arrives.
What is underlined is the fact that during the 2021 direct elections, Paulo Rangel, Vice President of the Party, “absolutely clear when you say similarities with Chega are an insurmountable red linel” and also, is another example, the former deputy minister of Passos Coelho, Miguel Poiares Maduro, in 2020, who assumed a disagreement with Montenegro when he said that “ambiguity is a strategic mistake, as it will lead to an increasingly stronger Chega”.
Another sentence we remember is that of Jorge Moreira da Silva during the internal dispute of May 2022: “As long as the PSD is not clear [recusando o Chega]we reduce our electoral chances”.
André Ventura, who sees himself “as an opposition and an alternative to the current PSD-CDS government” in Madeira, admits that he is “negotiating” with Albuquerque and “forming a government” and guarantees that “we will not enter into another agreement in will accept the same direction as exists in the Azores”.
Miguel Castro, regional leader of Ventura’s party, assures that “It will never be for Chega that Madeira will become ungovernable. On the contrary, we want to be part of the solution and never be a problem”. That is: “We will sit down and talk of course”, but “to enable a government solution in Madeira, Chega will not give up participating and studying and approving or disapproving government actions”.
And the job descriptions are clear: “Fighting corruption”, “reduction of taxes and the tax burden on work, IRS and VAT”, “tightened control of dependency subsidy”, “settlement of the mainland shipping line, for passengers and cargo”, ” adjust the mobility grant [transporte aéreo] for the people of Madeira and Porto Santo”.
José Manuel Rodrigues, President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, former Vice President of the CDS parliamentary group in the Assembly of the Republic, believes that it will not be necessary “to resort to any other political availability”. [para além da do CDS]to guarantee an “absolute majority” that the PSD/CDS coalition “needs no other party to govern”.
Miguel Albuquerque, who defends the current coalition because “subtraction is decreasing”, understands that it is not a sign of “weakness” for the PSD not to go to the polls alone: ”If you give a sign that you change now, it is a sign that something went wrong”.
Therefore, he justifies, “a sign of political intelligence and political perspective, because in politics you cannot show signs of weakness”.
Isn’t it a sign of the PSD’s weakness that it now needs the CDS to survive, to be a government? The answer is short: “I don’t need the CDS to live”. But the PSD never had to form a coalition with anyone and now it does. Isn’t that a weaker PSD? “After 40 years of running the region to say it’s a weakness… it’s a stretch (..) and it’s clear that the bills need to be done in a framework of greater bipolarization as the left is less fragmented on Madeira”.
José Manuel Rodrigues, who even admits that the PSD can understand, as Albuquerque says, does not need the CDS, recalls that it is necessary “to be aware that in the last election there was no absolute majority of the PSD and that the PSD therefore the CDS to rule”.
“I once said it had been a marriage of convenience and eventually it was going to be a marriage of love.” Even if the other partner says he doesn’t need you to live? “Look, but I wouldn’t be the first man or woman to say that.” Doesn’t the CDS run the risk of being swallowed up, of disappearing as a party? “It is a risk in all coalitions. But governance comes first. The risk exists. And marriages also differ, of course.”
the reactions
Sérgio Gonçalves, leader of the PS-Madeira, believes that the scenario of a political agreement between Albuquerque and Ventura “is too dangerous, it would represent the blindness of the PSD to power, which only aims to serve the clientele , without looking at the means. It has long been clear that the PSD has turned its back on the Madeirans, but in politics it cannot be everything. We cannot allow democracy to be questioned, which is a historic would be a setback.”
“For us, there is a total incompatibility between our values and what a party like Chega represents. We defend democratic values and present a serious project for Madeira. We are the only alternative for a change with a future,” he added.
The parliamentary leader of the JPP (Juntos pelo Povo), Élvio Sousa, currently the third political force besides the CDS, sees in the PSD/CDS coalition “the complete destruction of what was left of the coherence of the CDS, to the detriment of the well-being and economic and social interests of the population”, the Madeirans leave a question he considers legitimate: “Are you willing to see Chega as President of the Regional Legislative Assembly?”.
Joaquim Sousa, leader of the regional PAN, considers Chega’s “accession to the” regime ” [do PSD/CDS] as something natural”. In other words: “As more of the same, as a continuity of the coalition of interests and places that Miguel Albuquerque has accustomed us to”.
Even without the formalization of another “marriage of convenience”, only the one with the CDS seems sufficient, the possibility of post-election agreements between the parties on the left with the PS is starting to take shape to distance the PSD from the government, for the first in 47 years.
Élvio Sousa admits this possibility, a “possible agreement that is intended to be transparent, and in the eyes of everyone”, referring to the PS: “Will the traditional parties have the necessary strength and transparency to accompany our proposals, namely to stop a regime of monopolies that determines the cost of living of islanders?”.
In summary, the mandate seeks solutions for, for example, “the case of port operations and the free compensation that has been in force for 30 years; the need to reduce VAT (the highest in the autonomous regions); for the “lack of regulation of butane gas” the “operationalization of a FERRY line for more competition for the transport of goods and passengers”; the “commercialization of bananas, in a free regime and the centralization of electricity production”.
Joaquim Sousa, from the PAN, says the party is “available to consider this solution as a hypothesis as long as there is a change in strategy, a serious governance alternative, focused on transparency (which today does not exist and business interests are confused). public interest), economic growth (which reaches everyone and not just economic groups linked to the regime, which today’s young people are doomed to leave for lack of opportunities) and socio-environmental development (which is no longer based on little training , low wages, woodworms and concreting the territory)”.
The BE sends replies “for later” about the possibility of arrangements while the PCP understands that “it is not appropriate to make public statements at this time.
Sérgio Gonçalves, leader of the PS, for his part, says that his “priority is to ensure a stable, transparent and democratic government solution, led by the PS” because the government “we have exhausted and exhausted Madeira (.. . ) has turned his back on the Madeirans and, according to them, is more concerned with inventing works or spending €33 million a year on political appointments”.
The problem, he points out, is that “it happens because there is no control”. “We have had the same party in power for 46 years. We are the only region in the country where there is no term for the president. All this is murky and undermines democracy,” he concludes.
Source: DN
