"I want to warn [...] so that people don't let themselves be deceived, don't let themselves be carried away by the hollow and empty words of these people and cast their vote for those who have already given reasons to deserve this trust", said the head of the list, Raquel Coelho, at the Mercado do Santo da Serra, in the high areas of the municipality of Santa Cruz.

The candidate, who was a PTP deputy in the Legislative Assembly, said that in the party there are citizens who "do not sell themselves, do not bend, are combative, are courageous - who faced with heavy costs the PSD barons who have usurped the resources of Madeira and the Madeirans for more than 47 years".

In the market, a space much sought after on Sundays for purchases of fresh regional products and where other candidacies moved today (IL, ADN, PAN and CDS), Raquel Coelho indicated that the PTP was there to spread its message "of great fight against corruption", a theme that has dominated the campaign of its list.

"And to warn, above all, of the hypocritical parties that ask for the vote of the voters, say that they will oppose this rotten, outdated and corrupt PSD regime, but, in fact, are preparing to, after the elections, join with this party", she declared, pointing to "the CDS, the IL, the Chega and the PAN itself", which, in her opinion, "are the PSD's crutches".

The candidate appealed for the vote of the voters who "really want a change in Madeira, all those who are tired of being robbed, of being plundered so that half a dozen barons of the regime get rich".

The PTP, which already had a group of three deputies in the archipelago, wants to "defend" the Regional Budget and the taxes of the Madeirans and Porto-Santenses "from the clutches of these unworthy people, the people who took over the Legislative Assembly of Madeira and the Regional Government".

According to the candidate, in the archipelago there are companies "created with Dr. Alberto João Jardim", president of the executive between 1978 and 2015, by the PSD, and which "are so powerful, millionaires, that they already command more than the government itself and already command more than the parties themselves".

In other words, she insisted, there are "a series of companies that control several parties and have their spearheads to ensure that their interests are not compromised in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira".

Questioned about the problems of agriculture, the candidate criticized above all that this important portfolio was supervised by a secretary (Rafaela Fernandes) who does not know the sector and "does not know how to plant a cabbage, does not know how to distinguish an ox from a cow and still thinks that a hen lays three eggs".

On the other hand, Raquel Coelho said that it is necessary to modernize the irrigation water system.

The Madeira legislative elections will take place on May 26, with 14 candidacies competing 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.

The early elections take place eight months after the most recent regional legislative elections, after the President of the Republic dissolved the Madeiran parliament, following the political crisis triggered in January, when the leader of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, was constituted as a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

In 2023, the PSD/CDS coalition won without an absolute majority, electing 23 deputies, and the social democrats signed an agreement of parliamentary incidence with the elected member of the PAN. After Albuquerque was constituted as a defendant, the deputy withdrew her political trust from him, which led to the resignation of the head of the executive.

In that election, the PS won 11 deputies, the JPP five, the Chega four, while the CDU, IL and BE obtained one mandate.

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