The national leader of the PSD, Luis Montenegro, today expressed support for the president of the Madeiran Social Democrats, Miguel Albuquerque, and defended a “very first strategic cooperation relationship” with the governments of the autonomous regions.
“On this occasion I want to express to Miguel Albuquerque, on behalf of the national PSD, all the luck and all the spirit of cooperation for all these electoral challenges” that the party will face in Madeira, declared Luis Montenegro in a video message sent to the 19th PSD/Madeira congress taking place this weekend in Funchal.
The Prime Minister, who is not taking part in the PSD/Madeira meeting because he is traveling to Cape Verde, said that the newly elected members of the Madeiran PSD will have “intense political work” over the next two years, starting with the regional elections, then the European elections and next year the municipal elections.
“These are all huge challenges to which the support and collaboration between the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Government of the Republic is naturally added,” he added.
Luis Montenegro hoped that “Madeira will continue to be a guiding light for the PSD’s policies, the social democratic policies that transform people’s lives, that guarantee real equality of opportunity, that promote economic growth as the way, as the prerequisite for us to have more social justice”.
In this recorded message, also “on behalf of the Government”, he assured that he will be “at the side of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, as well as the Azores, in the deepening of regional autonomies, which has been a path taken in various circumstances”.
He also stressed his “commitment” to having “a very close relationship of strategic cooperation in being able to guarantee that it is often by delegating to the governing bodies of the autonomous regions that we better serve the interests of the country and of the people who live, work or visit the autonomous regions”.
Luis Montenegro considered that there were “many examples of progress in deepening autonomy”.
“We will continue to do so from a legislative point of view, from a constitutional point of view – when the opportunity arises – but, above all now, from the point of view of the relationship between the governments of the Republic and the governments of the autonomous regions,” he stressed.
According to the national leader, “there is every reason for the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the people of Madeira and Porto Santo to continue to trust in the PSD, which has always been the driving force behind the region’s development”.
“There is no doubt that we are not in a time of adventure, we are not in a time to change what is a trajectory of prosperity, a trajectory of greater social justice, a trajectory of equal opportunities,” he said.
The national structure of the PSD will be represented at this regional congress by the secretary-general, Hugo Soares, on Sunday at the closing session.
Another absentee at this magna meeting is Alberto João Jardim, who led the PSD/Madeira for almost four decades, who is in the Azores where he took part in a session commemorating the 50th anniversary of April 25.
