"We need a stronger left in parliament, because if the Bloco de Esquerda has more strength, has more deputies in the legislative assembly, it will certainly have more strength to force a political change in this region and to prevent the next government of our region from falling back into the arms of the right that brought us to this situation of social disgrace", said Roberto Almada, at the closing of the campaign for Sunday's regional elections, after a march through the streets of Funchal.

Counting on the presence of the national coordinator of Bloco de Esquerda (BE), Mariana Mortágua, to support the end of the electoral campaign, the party's representative in Madeira made a final appeal to vote for the candidacy, asking for his election and that of the number two on the list, Dina Letra, which would correspond to a reinforcement of the representation of the Bloco in the regional parliament, where they currently have one term, assumed by Roberto Almada.

"Let us make them feel the need to put more deputies in the parliament of Madeira, in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, because I want to have Dina by my side, to fight even more against this power and to fight even more for the people of Madeira and Porto Santo", appealed the BE's top candidate.

As a balance of two weeks of campaigning, Roberto Almada said that there were "many people" who welcomed BE "with open arms", noting that there are also those who do not like it, but have "every right not to like it".

The Bloco listened to the concerns of the population, from problems of access to housing, to the defence of the environment, and assumed the commitment to present proposals in the regional parliament.

"Next Sunday, that's what we're going to do, all the people of Madeira who go to the polls, is to elect the 47 deputies of the legislative assembly. It is not to elect any president of the government and, therefore, it makes no sense that some people go around claiming that the vote is either for one or for the other, as if they were very different", indicated the Bloquista, in an allusion to the PS's appeal for the useful vote.

Roberto Almada reinforced that the vote for BE can make a difference: "If the people of Madeira want it to be a vote that changes something in Madeira, it has to be a vote for the opposition that does not run away, the opposition that does not desert, the opposition that has always been with the people, has always been in the defence of the people of Madeira and Porto Santo, and not those who pretend they want to be on the side of the people of Madeira, but at the first opportunity they run away to Lisbon and run away to other places".

In this campaign, he added, "the strongest opposition, the strongest candidacy, the left that beat them the hardest, was the candidacy of Bloco de Esquerda", which was also the one that presented "the most political proposals" to solve the region's problems.

The leader of BE in Madeira also stressed that "for decades" the party has been fighting against corruption, reiterating that it was not surprised to see the police investigation that brought down the Regional Government (PSD/CDS), with the current president of the Madeiran executive and top candidate of the PSD, Miguel Albuquerque, being constituted as a defendant in a process that investigates suspicions of corruption.

Fourteen candidacies are competing for the 47 seats in the regional parliament, in a single electoral circle: ADN, BE, PS, Livre, IL, RIR, CDU (PCP/PEV), Chega, CDS-PP, MPT, PSD, PAN, PTP and JPP.

In September 2023, the PSD/CDS coalition won without an absolute majority and elected 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 BE obtained one term each.

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