"Dona Catarina, I like to watch you on television and listen to you speak, you tell many truths," said a Madeiran woman, addressing the former national coordinator of the Left Bloc, who was supporting the candidacy headed by Roberto Almada this morning, during a visit to the Estreito de Câmara de Lobos market, where the RIR and PSD candidacies were also campaigning. With about two dozen supporters and activists, with party flags and the LGBTQIAP+ community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual and other sexual orientations and gender identities), the Left Bloc caravan received words of encouragement and appeals for change in the 48-year governance of the PSD in Madeira. "You don't give up the fight when it's fair," reinforced Catarina Martins, flanked by Roberto Almada, who handed out pens "to vote well" and recalled that the Left Bloc is number two on the ballot paper. One of the traders commented that the situation in the region "is bad and will get worse after the elections", to which the former Left Bloc coordinator appealed for the vote. "Is the mainland cold or what?" asked another trader, clearly surprised by Catarina Martins' presence on the island of Madeira. The top candidate for the European elections on 9 June entered cafés and even a French couple recognised her from television. She passed by places where she had been in the 2023 elections, meeting people with whom she had taken a picture. "You speak very well on television," said a Madeiran woman, wishing the Left Bloc candidacy good luck, to which Catarina Martins replied: "Everyone is lucky, now it counts who has votes." Roberto Almada reinforced that the people cannot always vote for the same and expect things to change. "People already want change, the majority," said another resident of Câmara de Lobos. At a table on the esplanade, where people were drinking beer and playing scratch cards, a group of Madeirans complained about the words of the current President of the Regional Government and top candidate of the PSD, Miguel Albuquerque, for saying that the poverty risk rate in the region "is normal", and added that "for him everything is normal". "He will win another deputy, God willing," anticipated a Left Bloc supporter in the street, where there were also those who declared themselves "anti-Left Bloc" and rejected the campaign leaflet. In statements to the Lusa agency, Catarina Martins said that she is in Madeira because Roberto Almada's work in the regional parliament "has been extraordinary", with a daily fight "for living conditions" and "against corruption". In addition, she criticised the "horrible hypocrisy of Miguel Albuquerque, who thinks that poverty is not a problem, because it is only a risk of poverty, which is insulting to people who live with difficulty". "We need the Left Bloc to be strong and that's why I'm here," she said, betting on the election of two deputies. In 2023, the PSD/CDS coalition won without an absolute majority, with 23 deputies. The PS won 11, the JPP five, Chega four, while the CDU, IL, PAN (which signed an agreement of parliamentary incidence with the social democrats) and the Left Bloc obtained one mandate each. Fourteen candidacies are competing in the early regional elections of 26 May for the 47 seats in the regional parliament: ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, CDU (PCP/PEV), Chega, CDS-PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP. Read Also: Cafôfo reiterates that Montenegro is ashamed to participate in the campaign (Portuguese version)