BE Madeira says that advances are an opportunity to change power in the region – Politics

The Bloco de Esquerda’s candidacy for the early elections on May 26 in Madeira wants to increase parliamentary representation and assures that it will “never make agreements with the PSD”, nor with other right-wing parties.

“The important thing, at this moment, is for people to realize that this is an opportunity we have to change power in the region, but it is necessary for people to also give strength to those who, like the Left Bloc, will be the guarantor that there will be a different political and governance alternative”, said the head of the party’s list, Roberto Almada, in an interview with the Lusa agency.

The candidate, also BE’s sole deputy in the regional Legislative Assembly, elected in September 2023, considers, however, that if the party loses parliamentary representation there will probably not be “a true alternative”.

“We are ready to discuss a program with all those who, on the left, want to create a political alternative to the PSD, but it is a true political alternative, it is not a mere alternation, it is not a government that does the same”, he said.

For Roberto Carlos Teixeira Almada, who is 53 years old (born on November 16, 1970) and is a senior Public Administration technician in the area of ​​Social Education, the political crisis resulting from the process that investigates suspected corruption in the archipelago could benefit the most important parties. small, in addition to clarifying “what has been the PSD’s practice over the last 40 years” of governance.

“The Left Bloc has been one of the forces that has denounced less clear situations, cronyism, favoritism and situations of alleged corruption, and from this point of view we are perfectly comfortable, because we have always denounced it, we have not arrived now”, he highlighted.

The blocist candidate highlighted, among several proposals, precisely the fight against corruption, defending the review of the Political-Administrative Statute of the Autonomous Region with a view to extending the incompatibility regime to holders of political positions in Madeira, as well as at national level.

“It is not acceptable, for example, that, in this parliament, a deputy who is a businessman is approving a law one day from which he can benefit the next day”, he warned, and then reinforced: “This is a promiscuity that has always existed and which there is no way it can be changed.”

Roberto Almada, who has been a BE member since 2004 and previously joined the UDP, highlighted, on the other hand, housing as a “central issue” in the regional panorama, taking into account the high price of houses and rents, which is why he defends the establishing limits at that level.

“We can’t just have luxury housing for big foreign businessmen”, he warned.

The blockers want to impose limitations on local accommodation to free up houses for the market and establish a 25% quota in new developments intended for social housing, measures that must also be accompanied by increased wages.

The environment and tourism are other sectors highlighted in the BE program, with measures aimed at protecting natural heritage and alleviating tourist pressure.

“This pressure could ruin our golden goose, which is not only tourism, but also natural heritage”, he highlighted.

Roberto Almada, who was born and lives in Funchal, reinforces that BE will not make agreements with right-wing parties, as he considers that “they all want to go with Miguel Albuquerque to the Government”.

It also sets aside the PAN, a party that signed a parliamentary advocacy agreement with the Social Democrats after the 2023 elections, making the PSD/CDS-PP Government viable.

“Naturally, if after the elections, to which we are going with our program, there is a parliamentary geometry that favors the creation of a political alternative to that which the PSD has been presenting to us over the last almost 50 years, the Left Bloc will only If he were irresponsible, he would put himself out of a discussion,” he said.

BE lost parliamentary representation in Madeira in 2015, but returned in 2023, with the election of Roberto Almada, obtaining 3,035 votes (2.30%), out of a total of 135,446 voters.

The advances of May 26th occur eight months after the most recent regional legislation, after the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, dissolved the Madeiran parliament, following the political crisis triggered in January, when the leader of the Regional Government ( PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, was named a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption are investigated.