Today, the PTP was in the parish of Ponta Delgada, in the north of the island, next to a farm owned by the resigning president of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, who is the subject of a judicial investigation, as reported by Correio da Manhã in January.

In statements to the Lusa agency, José Manuel Coelho said that the builder of Albuquerque's "paradisiacal mansion" was an entrepreneur who won several public works contracts from the Madeiran executive (PSD/CDS-PP), considering that this is an exchange of favours.

"As we believe that this favouring of the entrepreneur involves money from taxpayers in Madeira and Porto Santo, we also believe that we had the right to use the farm itself as the headquarters of our party," said the candidate for Sunday's early regional elections.

The former regional deputy argued that "corruption in Portugal and in Madeira in particular is commonplace, and that even the courts in the autonomous region do not even bother to investigate any type of corruption because it has become commonplace, routine and is socially accepted".

"But we, who are truly democrats and believe that politics should be a noble art, cannot accept this type of behaviour, of buying favours," stressed the PTP candidate, a party that has dedicated almost its entire campaign to the cause of corruption.

In 2011, the PTP won three terms in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira and in 2015 it joined the Mudança coalition (PS/PTP/PAN/MPT), which disintegrated after the elections. The party was represented by one deputy, but failed to elect any in the last two regional elections.

The Madeira regional elections will be held with 14 candidacies competing for the 47 seats in the regional parliament, in a single electoral district.

The draw for the order on the ballot paper placed the National Democratic Alternative (ADN) in first place, followed by the Left Bloc (BE), the Socialist Party (PS), the Free (L), the Liberal Initiative (IL), React, Include, Recycle (RIR), CDU -- Democratic Unity Coalition (PCP/PEV), Chega (CH), CDS -- Popular Party (CDS-PP), Earth Party (MPT), Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD), People-Animals-Nature (PAN), Portuguese Labour Party (PTP) and Together for the People (JPP).

The early elections are taking place 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 made an official 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, 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 one mandate.

The PSD has always governed in the archipelago and won with an absolute majority in 11 elections between 1976 and 2015.

Read Also: Elections/Madeira. MPT criticises "deputies who sell themselves for peanuts" (Portuguese version)