The CDU (PCP/PEV) list leader for the September 24 elections in Madeira, Edgar Silva, said today that the “scandalous” inequalities and injustices in Madeira’s highlands “unmask” the development propaganda put out by the Regional Government.
“The concrete reality completely debunks the propaganda discourse that the PSD/CDS has been imposing, a certain narrative of economic success,” said the candidate as part of the election campaign initiative at the Garachico site, in the areas of the municipality of Câmara de Lobos, adjacent to the west of Funchal.
Edgar Silva mentioned that the president of the regional government (PSD/CDS), Miguel Albuquerque – who is running for a third term in the regional elections – has been pointing to “very positive economic indicators” of “a statistically rich region” which, in reality, is “deeply unequal”.
“And the [regional] government has a whole narrative that is contradicted by the concrete reality of the people’s lives,” he stressed, pointing out that the situation in these places shows “that this is an island of contrasts, of profound injustices that belie all the propaganda from the government.”
Edgar Silva said that in these “places of the people of the outermost regions”, concrete life is “hard, arduous and even brutally violent, made up of a world of great disparities that the rulers try but fail to hide”.
“And it is above all these inequalities and injustices that exist in Madeira, which are scandalous, that we are denouncing in this initiative,” he said.
In the opinion of the CDU list leader, “Garachico lacks everything” and spoke of the problem of open sewers.
According to the candidate, even after many millions have come from the European Union to solve problems, they persist because “the regional government has not directed investment here”.
“Even the little that was there, public facilities and schools, have been shut down, abandoning the population, adding to the violence and brutality of the harshness of life here in these areas,” he said.
The candidate Carolina Cardoso also spoke about the “more than 20-year-old promises of basic sanitation that remain unresolved” and how little has been done in these areas, where the little basic sanitation network that exists has broken down and cars need to be sent to unclog the open sewers.
For his part, candidate Ricardo Lume, who was a member of parliament in the legislature that just ended, called for a vote for the CDU to strengthen the “voice” of this political force in defense of the people facing these problems in the regional parliament.
The candidate said that “the people of the highlands cannot be forgotten”, stressing that there is “another way and people are not condemned to these inequalities and injustices”.
Madeira’s legislative elections take place on September 24, with 13 candidates vying for the 47 seats in the regional parliament, in a single constituency.
PTP, JPP, BE, PS, Chega, RIR, MPT, ADN, PSD/CDS-PP (Somos Madeira coalition), PAN, Livre, CDU (PCP/PEV) and IL are the political forces standing for election.
In the previous regional elections in 2019, the Social Democrats elected 21 deputies, losing for the first time the absolute majority they had held since 1976, and formed a coalition government with the CDS-PP (three deputies). The PS won 19 seats, the JPP three and the CDU one.
