"The battle for social justice and the fight against inequality must be placed at the top of the political agenda," the head of the PCP/PEV coalition, Edgar Silva, told Lusa, accusing the parties of the executives of the archipelago and the continent of making these "issues relegated to footnotes of political intervention."

On a campaign day in Santa Cruz, the candidate -- who was elected last year, but gave up his seat to the number two on the list -- attributed "particular relevance" to this fight in Madeira, "the region that has the most accentuated social injustices and where social inequality is greater and more accentuated."

"The salaries are the lowest in the whole country, the pensions are the lowest in the whole country," exemplified Edgar Silva in the context of a campaign action aimed at appealing to the vote in the coalition.

"For each additional vote in the CDU, better conditions are created so that the fight against injustices and the fight against social inequalities are placed at the top of the political agenda in the Autonomous Region of Madeira and have the priority that they have not had in political intervention, in parliamentary intervention, in the negative resolution, especially in acting on those who are the causal links of these problems," he added.

In the street action, the CDU appealed to the population to vote so that its "demanding force becomes more operative," at a time when "the problem of social injustice is further aggravated by the difficulties of access to housing," since "renting has become a privilege only for those who have a lot of money."

These inequalities, stressed the communist coordinator in the archipelago, "are then reflected in access to goods and services, to health care, to education and to culture."

"If the CDU is important at the time of fighting, it is also important to be recognized at the time of voting," he said.

The CDU, which has only one elected representative in the regional parliament and intends to strengthen its representation, will contest the vote with 13 other candidacies that want to win the 47 seats in the regional parliament.

The single electoral district will also be contested by ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, Chega, CDS-PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP.

The early elections will take place on May 26, eight months after the most recent regional 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 September 2023, the PSD/CDS coalition won without an absolute majority and elected 23 deputies. The PS won 11 elected representatives, the JPP five, the Chega four, while the CDU, the IL, the PAN (which signed a parliamentary incidence agreement with the Social Democrats) and the BE obtained one mandate each.

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