"As I have said before, Chega does not engage in backstage games, in backstage conversations. Precisely because of this, our opinion remains the same", declared Miguel Castro, reiterating that, with Miguel Albuquerque at the head of the regional executive, he is not available to make agreements.

The leader of Chega/Madeira was speaking to journalists, at the São Lourenço Palace, in Funchal, after being received by the representative of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Ireneu Barreto, who today began to hear from the parties elected in the regional elections on Sunday.

"What we said to the representative of the Republic is that Chega is a responsible party and that it will not be because of Chega that there will be no government in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. This does not mean that we are part of a government either on the right or on the left", said Miguel Castro, elected deputy on Sunday, adding that his party will vote in the Regional Legislative Assembly "proposal by proposal".

"We have not seen the Government Program, we do not know the Government Program, which party or which parties will present it. However, after seeing it, we will analyze it, with great seriousness and precision, and only then will we see if we support it or not", he added, when asked if he is available to make the document viable.

Miguel Castro admitted having had some informal contacts with the PSD, to whom Chega informed that he would not make "any government agreement or coalition with Miguel Albuquerque's PSD".

As for the PS and the JPP, who expressed their intention on Monday to propose a joint government solution, the president of the regional structure of Chega denied having received any contacts.

If it is an executive led by the PS to present the Government Program, Miguel Castro has already assumed that he will vote against, arguing that "the left does not mean the well-being of the people of Madeira and Porto Santo".

In the regional legislative elections on Sunday, Miguel Albuquerque's PSD (president of the Madeiran executive since 2015) won again and elected 19 deputies, being five parliamentarians away from the absolute majority.

The socialists, the main opposition force, maintained the 11 parliamentary seats of the previous term and the JPP, the third political force in the region, increased its bench from five to nine members. Chega elected four deputies, CDS-PP two and IL and PAN one deputy each.

The representative of the Republic, Ireneu Barreto, is today hearing from the seven elected parties in ascending order of votes.

According to a note released on Monday, the objective of the meetings is to gather "the formal and political conditions" to "proceed with the appointment of the president of the XV Regional Government".

The early elections in Madeira took 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 named a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

[News updated at 3:48 pm]

Read also: Elections in Madeira. "Miguel Albuquerque is not a solution, he is a problem" (Portuguese version)