JPP’s Filipe Sousa challenges Albuquerque’s Lisbon budget claims
Madeira GuideThe JPP deputy said the proposed funding was a continuation of an existing compensation and called for a fair Regional Finance Law for Madeira.
JPP deputy Filipe Sousa said on Wednesday that he did not understand Miguel Albuquerque's public satisfaction after the Regional Government president met Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in Lisbon. Sousa said Albuquerque had indicated that he would have no problem with the 2027 State Budget if the agreement with the prime minister is fulfilled.
Sousa said people needed an explanation of Albuquerque's "great conquest" in Lisbon, which he put at 80 million euros. He said 100 million euros of taxpayers' money from Madeira and Porto Santo had been spent building golf courses, while golf generated four million euros in revenue in 2024.
He said Albuquerque had not addressed what he described as the main concerns of people in Madeira and Porto Santo: the ferry link, the digital platform of the Territorial Continuity Mechanism, air travel prices and measures to ease the cost of living. Sousa also criticised the PSD's annual trip to Lisbon, saying its cost was reflected in supermarket bills, rents and house purchases, health, freight transport, gas, fuels and electricity.
Sousa said the 2026 State Budget already included 79.9 million euros as an extraordinary transfer to compensate for the effects of the current Regional Finance Law regarding the Cohesion Fund. He said this was a continuation of existing compensation, not a new historic achievement, and that Madeira still lacked a Regional Finance Law suited to its insular reality. JPP said it would not accept Madeira's autonomous dignity being negotiated in this way.
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Madeira Guide
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