"At the moment, we [PSD/CDS-PP coalition Regional Government] are in management. The sports support framework is a law that was approved, and well, many years ago and is suited to the needs of regional sports. Obviously, more money is always needed, but the money has to be shared with other areas", he said.

Miguel Albuquerque, who was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of the Regional Health Week, which runs until Friday in Funchal, recalled that the law stipulates a total of 12 million euros in support for sports entities, including 1.7 million for professional football.

Even if the clubs move up a division, the Madeiran executive does not plan to change the legal regime for the allocation of financial contributions to sports associations in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, created in 2005, in order to increase support.

"The law is the one in force and covers all these situations", he said.

Miguel Albuquerque also stressed that the "essence of the law" will not be changed even with a new regional budget.

"It is a good law. It defines with reasonable criteria the support for sports and has had excellent results, as the sports results in the region and the practice of sports demonstrate", he reinforced.

The Government of Madeira, a coalition of PSD/CDS-PP, with the parliamentary support of PAN, has been in management since the beginning of February, after the president of the executive resigned from his post after being named a defendant in a case in which suspicions of corruption in the archipelago are being investigated and PAN withdrew its political confidence.

Following the political crisis, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, dissolved the parliament of Madeira and called early elections for 26 May.

Also within the scope of the opening of the Health Week, Miguel Albuquerque said that the region faces two "major challenges": the financial sustainability of the system and the maintenance of investment in the sector, in order to avoid a "blatant gap between the capacity of private medicine and the capacity of public medicine in providing care".

Miguel Albuquerque also warned of the executive's expenses in the acquisition of medicines, which, according to official estimates, will have exceeded 100 million euros in 2023, and that the price of medicines for the treatment of oncological diseases increased by 170% between 2015 and 2021.

During the Regional Health Week, which takes place at the Quinta Magnólia Cultural Centre, in Funchal, topics such as "Health Promotion and the Construction of Healthy Environments and Communities", "Prevention Throughout Life", "Health Protection" and "Progress of the Regional Health System" will be debated.

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