On Sunday night, the PSD won the elections for the Legislative Assembly of Madeira for the 14th consecutive time, but just like in 2019 and in September of last year, it failed to obtain the majority of the 47 seats in the parliament. However, if in 2019 it obtained that majority with the CDS-PP, and in September, when it ran in coalition with the Christian Democrats, it negotiated an agreement of parliamentary incidence with PAN, now Miguel Albuquerque says he is available to talk to "all parties". Passionate about roses, in the last eight months there have been several 'thorns' that have crossed the path of the also leader of the PSD/Madeira, who was indicted at the end of January in a process that investigates suspicions of corruption in the archipelago. Although he initially resisted, after PAN broke the agreement of parliamentary incidence it had with the PSD, Miguel Albuquerque submitted his resignation as president of the Regional Government, precipitating the fall of the executive and the scheduling of early elections. Miguel Albuquerque was once considered the 'heir' of Alberto João Jardim, but over the years he ended up entering into a 'collision course' with the historic social-democratic leader before succeeding him in the leadership of the party and the Madeiran executive. Born on May 4, 1961 in Funchal, it was his maternal grandparents who educated the leader of the PSD/Madeira in a "very happy childhood", spent on a farm. The influence of his maternal grandfather, Lieutenant Machado, an anti-fascist resistant who was imprisoned in São Tomé and Cape Verde during the New State, was decisive for him to follow the path of politics: "it was a great influence", he told Sábado magazine shortly before the September elections. Music has also always been present in the life of the Madeiran social-democratic leader and, at the age of 16, he played the piano in hotels during the holidays. The band Velhos Hotéis, later founded with a group of friends, was the heir to those times. After a spell in Lisbon to obtain his law degree, Miguel Albuquerque returned to Madeira, where he practiced law between 1986 and 1992, with an office in Funchal, specializing in the areas of criminal and family law. In politics, his first steps were taken in the mid-1980s, in the Movement to Support Mário Soares for the 1986 presidential elections. In 1988, he made his debut in the regional legislative elections and was elected on the PSD lists. Four years later, he was re-elected, when he was also already leading the JSD/Madeira (1990-1992). Between 1992 and 1995, he was deputy secretary-general of the PSD/Madeira. In the meantime, in 1993 he left law to become number two on the PSD/Madeira list for the Funchal Municipal Council, headed by Vergílio Pereira, whom he replaced the following year, after the mayor resigned due to disagreements with the then president of the Regional Government, Alberto João Jardim, over transfers to the municipality. He only left the presidency of the municipality due to the law limiting terms of office, in 2013, after winning the local elections of 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2009 with a majority. At that time, he returned to law, dedicating himself to business law. While he was in charge of the largest Madeiran municipality, he was also president of the Association of Municipalities of Madeira (1994-2002), vice-president of the PSD/Madeira and responsible for the jurisdiction council of the regional structure of the party, a position he resigned from in April 2011, due to disagreement with the political line followed. In fact, it was at the end of his term as president of the Funchal Council that the climate of tension with the then president of the Regional Government and of the PSD/Madeira intensified, with Miguel Albuquerque being the first to question the 40-year leadership of Alberto João Jardim, in direct elections held in 2012, from which he emerged defeated by 142 votes. In December 2014, he once again ran for the leadership of the PSD/Madeira, presenting himself as one of the six candidates to succeed Jardim. After winning the first round with 47.2% of the votes, in the second round against Manuel António Correia he reached 64%, taking office as president of the Madeiran social democrats on January 10, 2015. The confrontation with Manuel António Correia for the presidency of the PSD/Madeira was repeated in March this year, after the fall of the executive, but once again Miguel Albuquerque emerged victorious. The leader of the PSD/Madeira became president of the Regional Government of Madeira on April 20, 2015, after winning the regional elections of March 29 with an absolute majority. Over the years, he has added other passions to politics, such as porcelain pieces or, the best known of all, roses. He came to have one of the largest rose gardens in Europe, in the north of the island of Madeira, with a collection of about 17,000 rose bushes of more than 1,700 species. His taste for horticulture even led him to be considered "the chief gardener of Quinta Vigia", the official residence of the president of the Regional Government. Father of six children, Miguel Albuquerque is also a grandfather. His friends consider him "a good eater", but he has never given up sports. Before his morning runs on Avenida do Mar, in his youth he broke regional swimming records. From those times, he revealed in an interview, he kept "self-discipline, that idea of training, of having set times for things, of sacrifice, of persistence, of determination". [News updated at 07:22] Read Also: IL indisponível para qualquer "entendimento" com PSD ou PS na Madeira (Portuguese version)