"There is an elite that parasites the regional government and that absorbs all the wealth that is produced, that has the monopoly of all essential services and that keeps getting richer. While this happens, Madeira, the poorest region in Portugal. With the highest rate of poverty and misery while an elite gets rich in the shadow of the State", she said.

For the BE coordinator, Madeira lives "a regime of favors, in which a party and its adjuncts in power, be it the PAN or the CDS-PP, created a clientele of companies that feed on the government, government contracts, government concessions and government favors".

Mariana Mortágua added that in Madeira "there is a sea of tax benefits for large companies, millionaire companies that have not created a job, but, at the same time, there is a maximum 22% VAT for all people who consume and live in Madeira".

"There is a sea of real estate construction, luxury 'resorts', just go to Funchal. Endless local accommodation, hotels on the beach, more and more luxury homes to sell to wealthy foreigners. And, at the same time, the price of a house costs more than 500 thousand euros, a rent of 1,200 euros. Funchal has become one of the most expensive places in the country to live, despite having records of construction of new houses and residences", she said.

According to the BE coordinator, "Madeira is, today, a place of environmental destruction, it is a place where everything is privatized, even the homes".

"In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the PSD and the right prevented a parity law, to ensure that there are no women on the lists for the regional parliament. There is no regime of incompatibilities. A deputy can be approving laws and, benefiting in the company, from the laws that he approved", she pointed out.

Speculation, subservience and favors to millionaire companies, environmental destruction, maximum conservatism, suffocation of the media, impunity in the face of economic crime. This is the mark of the PSD Madeira

In Madeira, the vote in the Block is a vote to stop this endless opportunism, it is a vote of alternative (...). A vote for a party that has never shut up. That has always made all the denunciations, that has never cowered in the face of corruption and economic crime", she stressed.

The BE, which has only one elected member in the regional parliament, will contest the elections with 13 other candidates who are disputing the 47 seats in the regional parliament.

ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, Chega, CDS-PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP are also running for the single electoral constituency.

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 named 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 members, the JPP five, the Chega four, while the CDU, the IL, the PAN (which signed an agreement on parliamentary incidence with the Social Democrats) and the BE each obtained a mandate.

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