The big surprise in the Madeira elections was not the winner, nor the fact that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) did not have an absolute majority. It was the winning of nine seats by Juntos pelo Povo (JPP), which with almost 17% of the votes won the 'trophy' of the third political force in the regional parliament.

Even Alberto João Jardim, historical leader of the regional government, always elected by the PSD, acknowledged that JPP is "the big winner" in the Madeira elections.

But what party is this that could put the PSD's governance at risk (if it makes a "geringonça" with the PS)?

Juntos pelo Povo (JPP) was born in the municipality of Santa Cruz in April 2009, to run in the local elections of that same year, by two brothers, Filipe Sousa and Élvio Sousa, who is the current secretary-general and parliamentary leader of the party.

According to the official website, it is a party "with roots in a movement of citizens committed to participatory citizenship, which motivates the civic conscience of intervention".

In that same year, JPP boasts of having removed, "for the first time in the democratic history of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the majority of the social-democratic executive of the Santa Cruz Municipal Council, and won an absolute majority in the Gaula Parish Council".

15 years later, JPP has already run in local, regional and even national elections. Collecting several victories, which were consolidated this Sunday, May 26.

On its official website, the founders describe the party as a "defender of democracy", with a "social, grassroots and plural matrix", with a "clear and constructive orientation", aiming at "renewing means and actions that motivate the civic conscience of intervention, promoting and valuing, in this way, participatory citizenship in the resolution of national problems".

JPP also presents itself as "an instrument of political dialogue for the political electorate, whose discontent with the current situation in the country has been systematically under-represented by the model of action of traditional political parties, aiming at the construction of a just and plural society, which is governed by the principles of Unity, Transparency and Resistance" and "as a political organization it intends to represent all Portuguese citizens in the national territory and in the diaspora".

Despite this, some accuse it of being "demagogic" and "populist", a kind of anti-system movement but on the Left, unlike what has been happening at the national and even European level, which has witnessed the growth of the far-right.

At the national level, JPP has a practically irrelevant expression. However, in Madeira it has become a very powerful phenomenon.

Read Also: PS "had a weak result" in Madeira and JPP "capitalized" on it (Portuguese version)