"We have an agreement with the CDS for parliamentary support and we are available to form a government, with a view to guaranteeing what is necessary for Madeira and the Madeirans, which is to have a government, to have an approved government program and a budget as quickly as possible," declared Miguel Albuquerque, who has led the Madeiran executive since 2015.

The leader of the PSD/Madeira and deputy elected in Sunday's early regional elections spoke after an audience with the Republic's representative for Madeira, Ireneu Barreto, who today received the seven parties with parliamentary representation, after Sunday's regional elections, in ascending order of votes: PAN (one deputy), IL (one), CDS-PP (two), Chega (four), JPP (nine), PS (11) and PSD (19).

Miguel Albuquerque told the Republic's representative that he is "available now" to form the government, to have a budget for the region "as quickly as possible, by July", and to start making decisions "within a framework of dialogue" in the assembly with the other parties, defending "an ultra-accelerated calendar" of governance.

"We made an agreement with the CDS, this agreement is closed, and this also guarantees more stability for the government," indicated the Madeiran leader of the PSD, emphasizing that it is an agreement on parliamentary incidence.

Asked if the president of the CDS-PP in Madeira, José Manuel Rodrigues, will be the candidate for the presidency of the Madeiran legislative assembly, the social democrat revealed that this is one of the decisions that were made within the scope of the established agreement, which also incorporates some of the principles of the Christian Democrats' program that will be included in the government program and in the budget.

"We dialogued with all the parties, with the exception, obviously, of the JPP and the PS," he added.

Asked if he does not consider himself to be "on the tightrope" in terms of guaranteeing the stability of the next government, since he is a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption in the region are being investigated, Miguel Albuquerque rejected this idea and stated that "being investigated in a process is neither a conviction, nor opening of proceedings, nor even an accusation".

The social democrat assured that it will be "a stable government in the region, a government that will be of dialogue, a government that will be different from having an absolute majority".

"This idea that parties are the centers of the world and parties can make numbers independently of what exists in civil society is bad. Parties are instruments at the service of the population and in the reading of the framework that resulted from the regional elections, the party that should form the government is the winning party," he declared, emphasizing that the PSD had more than 20 thousand votes difference in relation to the second party, the PS, and has a differential of eight deputies.

Miguel Albuquerque also reinforced that the PSD is, according to the election results, "the force that represents the will of the Madeirans to govern", although without an absolute majority, which requires dialogue with political forces that are in parliament and have affinities with the social democrats from the programmatic and ideological point of view.

Regarding the joint agreement between the PS and JPP to try to form a government, the PSD's regional leader considered it "a circus number, without any foundation, in which, evidently, there was a desperate attempt by the PS leader to swallow the JPP and the JPP fell for the trick".

In relation to the flexibility to accept opposition measures, the social democrat expressed willingness to accept "some measures, as long as they do not jeopardize the financial sustainability of the region" and do not violate the ideological principles of the PSD.

Asked about a possible audit of public accounts, Miguel Albuquerque said that "it can be done", but stressed that the region's accounts are audited by the Court of Auditors.

The Madeiran parliament is made up of 47 deputies, so the formation of a majority requires 24 elected members.

In Sunday's elections, Miguel Albuquerque's PSD once again won the regional elections and elected 19 deputies.

On that same day, Miguel Albuquerque said he was available to ensure a "government of stability", but the PS considered that there was room to build an alternative.

On Monday, the PS and the JPP announced "a joint government solution" in the archipelago, to be presented to the Republic's representative in Madeira, appealing to the participation of the remaining parties, with the exception of the PSD and Chega, "in order to build a more robust parliamentary support".

This morning, before being received by the Republic's representative for Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque and José Manuel Rodrigues met at Quinta Vigia, in Funchal, according to a social democratic source told Lusa.

The early elections in Madeira took place eight months after the previous 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 constituted a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

[News updated at 6:49 pm]

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