Nuno Barata, Regional Coordinator and Member of the Azorean Parliament for the Liberal Initiative in the Azores, announced this Saturday that he will “vote against” the proposals for the Plan and Budget for 2024 because the documents presented by the coalition are “unrealistic”, “welfarist” and “do not lift the Azores out of poverty.”

In an interview with the Azorean public audiovisual service (Antena 1 and RTP/Açores), Nuno Barata deplored the Regional Government’s stance of “not respecting commitments,” “not fulfilling what it commits to” and “deceiving the Azoreans,” particularly concerning the implementation of European Union funds and PRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan) funds.

“This is not a budget favorable to the IL, first of all because it is not realistic, because it continues to contain measures and proposals that have already been inscribed and not implemented since 2021 and that have never been fulfilled. There is no guarantee that next year the regional government will do everything it hasn’t done in the last three years,” he said.

“The people say from the height of their wisdom – and I love listening to the people – that a friar doesn’t wear three capes. We (IL) have made our effort. We approved three budgets for this coalition, but the budgets were not met. I can assure you that 90% of the measures included in the budgets proposed by IL have not been complied with. And this is serious, because it is a disrespect for the Parliament of the Azores, which is only the representatives of the People. Not complying with legislation approved by a large majority and unanimously is not complying with the Azorean people. And anyone who does not comply with the People and with what they commit to can no longer deserve our trust,” added the Liberal leader and parliamentarian.

“This coalition government wasn’t prepared to govern; it wasn’t prepared to tackle the problems the region had, and did the same things the PS had been doing until 2020. The results are plain to see: poverty has worsened in the last two years in the region, the Gini Index has worsened – making the poorest poorer and the richest richer – the regulations for accessing funds from the Azores 2030 Operational Program have become bureaucratic… This is not developing the region in the sense of cohesion and lifting people out of poverty, of boosting the creation of jobs, of creating a better economy,” Nuno Barata explained.

“A budget that insists on more social support is not a budget that aims to lift the Azoreans out of poverty, but only to mitigate the problems of the poor, and this is not what we want. We can’t solve the problem by pouring money on the poor. We can’t continue with this welfare system that doesn’t lift anyone out of poverty. IL wants a strong, healthy, and free economy – and we don’t have one. Look at the regulations for the next European Union Support Framework, which is much more bureaucratic than the previous ones. Bureaucratizing anything, plus regulating access to structural funds for families and companies, is almost an affront to the Liberal Initiative. Making regulations that make life even more complicated for families and companies is like telling the IL that we (who advocate simplifying processes and cutting red tape in the economy) are not right. I expect the big corporations, the chambers of commerce, the fisheries and agriculture federations, the trade unions to come out and say that this regulation complicates the lives of people and companies,” he explained.

The great fallacy

One of the arguments that Nuno Barata refutes the most, in this interview conducted by journalist Pedro Moreira, is the hypothetical impossibility of a Regional Government without an approved budget being able to implement EU funds: “this is the great fallacy that they have already started spreading to scare the Azoreans”.

Nuno Barata relies on specific legislation to refute all those using EU funds “as a bogeyman,” arguing that “the region can’t spend on circuses instead of bread.”

“The great fallacy of those who don’t want to give up power is to say that without a budget, EU funds won’t be implemented. This statement only frightens me because whoever says it is either in bad faith or incompetent. The Azoreans can rest assured that nothing will stop the implementation of EU funds,” said the Regional Leader of the IL.

“With technical data, I can assure the Azoreans that only an incompetent government will not execute EU funds on a twelfths basis. We need to revisit three laws to dismantle the great fallacy they are using to scare people: the budgetary framework law, the regional budget execution law, and the law on the twelfth regime. The latter law excludes the implementation of structural funds from the twelfth regime. Therefore, anyone who comes to say – as they have been saying – that not approving the Region’s budget means not using the funds from the PRR and PO Açores 2030 is deceiving the Azoreans and is waving flags of instability that scare people and are all lies.

In Açoriano Oriental, Paulo Simões-diretor

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.

The IL political party is one of the political entities that has voted with the coalition. The governmental coalition will have to procure another vote from another political force to see a budget passed for 2024.