The Plan and Budget of the Azores have been rejected for the first time in the history of Autonomy. The Regional Government has pledged to present a second budget in less than 90 days, but the President of the Republic has already summoned the parties to an audience on the afternoon of the 30th.
The 26 votes in favor of the coalition parties, PSD, CDS-PP, and PPM, plus the vote in favor of the independent deputy (ex-Chega) were insufficient to pass the executive’s proposals for 2024. PS, BE, and IL voted against (28 votes); CH and PAN (two votes) abstained.
In the final speeches before the vote, the regional government president announced that the executive would present new proposals in less than 90 days, adding that it was open to dialogue. José Pacheco, from Chega, said he was available for dialogue, but Nuno Barata, from Iniciativa Liberal, said he would not vote in favor of a second budget.
“I will soon begin the procedure of presenting a new proposal, renewing and intensifying the dialog, especially with parties that are willing to participate in the solution and not in the problem. It is my clear understanding that it is not in the interests of the Azores to postpone the entry into force of a budget for too long. That’s why I’m declaring right now that the government is not going to use up the 90-day deadline laid down by law,” said José Manuel Bolieiro.
The president of the Azorean executive stressed in his speech that “it is the understanding” of the President of the Republic “that a budget is essential, as we have seen in the national political crisis”.
According to José Manuel Bolieiro, the budget framework law “requires the regional government” to present a new proposal.
“It is my duty, on behalf of the Regional Government, to comply with the law. I will comply with the law,” he stressed, claiming that the twelfth regime is “not the ideal situation, much less in these two special years of 2024 and 2025, for the implementation of the RRP”.
The President of the Regional Government assured that he wanted to continue to be a “benchmark for stability,” maintaining a “positive, humble and dialoguing attitude,” and accused the PS of not having the courage to present a censure motion.
“The PS doesn’t know where it is and even less where it should be going. Early elections, for no reason or for all reasons, whatever, but the courage to present a motion of censure fails. It procrastinates the decision in the hope that others will dissolve Parliament,” he said.

Two failures
The coalition executive took office in 2020, despite the PS having won the elections, based on parliamentary agreements with Chega and Iniciativa Liberal, which voted in favor of the first three budgets of the legislature.
In the last budget, Nuno Barata decided to vote against it, and José Pacheco abstained, dictating that the proposal for 2024 would be rejected.
“The Liberal Initiative will not vote in favor of this budget, nor will it vote in favor of a second budget from this government. And if, in the meantime, the President of the Republic does not summon the parties to hear them, we will be the first to send a letter to Belém asking for an urgent hearing. A hearing that should have taken place after March 8, 2023,” said Nuno Barata, before Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s summons became known.
According to the IL parliamentarian, the budget had “too much of a socialist slant” and was “so bad” that it didn’t even deserve “an abstention.”
“That would be a comfortable way of sitting on the fence and waiting for it to be voted down because of someone else’s responsibility. We don’t shirk our responsibilities to the Azoreans of today and, above all, to the Azoreans of tomorrow,” he stressed.
In his reactions after the budget was voted down, Nuno Barata defended the need to “give the voice back to the people,” guaranteeing that he was “not afraid to go to the polls.”

Dialogue only with Bolieiro
The Chega Deputy abstained but said he was ready for elections “today, tomorrow, or on whatever date is right.” He also said he was open to dialogue but without approval guarantees.
“For our part, whether today or any other day, the door was, is and always will be open, as long as this dialog is constructive, serious and for the good of the Azoreans. We have never closed doors. Our vote on this Plan and Budget for 2024 is thoughtful, made responsibly, not with any government in mind, but with the Azores and the people in mind,” he said.
José Pacheco also argued that Chega had been the “guarantor of stability” for three years. “We stood firm, without giving in to pressure or deceit, lies repeated many times that even seemed to be true, or even attacks and slander, both personal and against Chega. Not even when they shouted ‘no it’s not’ from Lisbon did we waver one millimeter,” he said.
In his explanation of the vote, after listening to the speech by Paulo Estêvão from the PPM, the Chega deputy said that he would only negotiate with the regional government president.
“I’ve been warning them all year. They didn’t listen to us, they didn’t care and we’ve reached the point of being publicly insulted in the blackest way by a party that is part of the government. This is unacceptable. Mr. President of the government, I will keep my word, but with you and no one else,” he said.

PAN rejects being a substitute
The PAN, which did not sign a parliamentary impact agreement but voted in favor of the last budget, also abstained.
“As the opposition, no one can demand that the PAN, by breaking formal agreements with other parties, replace one of them at the end of the legislature, like a lapel flower ready to be used for convenience. But we will show a sense of responsibility and never play scorched earth politics,” he said.
The MP was nevertheless concerned about “a crisis taking hold in the region, with management in twelfths with no end in sight, coupled with the crisis that already exists in the Assembly of the Republic.” Asked by journalists about a second budget, Pedro Neves said that the PAN “doesn’t have a firm decision”, but questioned whether “it will be very different” from the one rejected today.

Giving the floor back to the people
The PS voted against it, and Vasco Cordeiro blamed the Regional Government for the “political crisis”, due to the “violation of commitments made” and the “clear and visible harassment of former parliamentary partners”.
“The political turmoil surrounding these Plan and Budget proposals is a symptom, an effect, not a cause. And a possible second budget will not change this picture or our assessment of the path this regional government is taking the Azores on,” he said.
The Socialist parliamentary leader, accused several times in the debate of having his sights set on the European elections, guaranteed that he was committed to the region.
“As I have reaffirmed several times, my commitment is to the Azores. If, perhaps, my commitments were different, I wouldn’t have sat here for three years, with great pride and honor in this House, refusing other opportunities from the public and private sectors,” he assured.
In his explanation of the vote, Vasco Cordeiro accused the government of clinging to power and refusing to give its word back to the people.
“Those who directly or indirectly assumed that this was the condition for appointing and enabling this government were the representative of the Republic and the President of the Republic. If that assumption fails, as has just been demonstrated, they cannot remain silent or whistle as if nothing was wrong,” he said before Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s summons was made public.
As for the presentation of the second budget, the Socialist leader questioned why the regional government was not willing to talk earlier.

A crisis caused by the right
The BE also voted against it, claiming that the budget had “no solutions for the Azores”, that the right-wing government was “exhausted,” and that the parliamentary majority was “falling apart”.
“It is the right, the entire right, the PSD, the CDS, the PPM, the CH and the IL, who are solely responsible for the political quagmire of recent weeks. We have a government with no solutions and a dissolving majority. They are incapable of doing anything relevant for people’s lives,” said António Lima.
In his explanation of the vote, the Bloc Deputy criticized the fact that the Regional Government wants to make believe that “a second budget will be approved as if nothing had happened.”
“This is dragging the Azores into a political crisis, into an unacceptable political swamp,” he pointed out, claiming that “only one entity can resolve it, and that is the people at the ballot box.”

Partisan interests
João Bruto da Costa, from the PSD, focused his criticism mainly on Vasco Cordeiro, accusing the PS of doing everything to ensure that “there is a budget crisis in the Azores”, putting “the interests of the Socialist Party and its leader above the interests of the Azores and the Azoreans”.
The Social Democrat MP claimed that “the largest opposition party has not been able to come up with a single proposal, a single reason, a single idea to justify voting against these documents”.
“If you agree with the measures in this budget, if your PS wants to approve these measures in six months’ time, let me tell you: don’t make the Azoreans a plaything in your political games and have the courage to vote in favor of measures you say you agree with,” he appealed, addressing Vasco Cordeiro.
On the sidelines of the vote, the leader of the PSD parliamentary bench considered that the Regional Government has the “duty” to present a second budget in “compliance with autonomous legislation.”
“The parliamentary mechanisms for approving a budget for 2024 have not been exhausted,” he said.

Illegitimate dissolution
Paulo Estêvão, from the PPM, also pointed the finger at the PS leader, claiming that nothing “rational, real or true” justifies the “most absurd and gratuitous political crisis in world history.”
“The only reason is Vasco Cordeiro’s inordinate ambition to return to power, where he was a government deputy, a member of the government and president of the government for 24 years,” he said.
In a speech in which he used an allegory with Plato’s Myth of the Cave, Paulo Estêvão also referred to the Chega MP, saying that the party “is too fond of the old maxim from the 1940s ‘work sets you free'” in an allusion to a phrase used in the Nazi regime’s concentration camps.
Questioned on the sidelines of the vote about Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s intervention, the PPM leader said that the Azorean political system is “pure parliamentary” and that dissolving the assembly would lead to the fall of the Azorean executive.
“His decision to dissolve the assembly, which has never happened in 47 years, would be illegitimate from a political point of view and would seriously damage the Autonomy of the Azores,” he said, pointing out that the President of the Republic had decided to keep the government of the Republic in office until March.

Spell against the sorcerer.
CDS-PP leader Artur Lima also argued that the executive “has a legal obligation to present a new budget.”
“A law made by the PS in 98 and defended by Vasco Cordeiro, when [the PS] had a minority government. It’s funny how the spell turns against the sorcerer. The government must comply with the law, it will comply with the law, and it will present the second budget,” he told reporters, claiming that if it is rejected again, the President of the Republic “will take the decision he sees fit.”
Questioned that Chega only admits to making deals with the leader of the PSD, Artur Lima said he had “every confidence” in José Manuel Bolieiro to negotiate.
In his explanation of the vote, Rui Martins, from the CDS-PP, challenged the parties voting against to present a censure motion, considering that “the most representative opponents don’t dare to act and take refuge abroad.”

A sad moment for Autonomy
Independent MP Carlos Furtado justified his vote in favor, arguing that it was “the best way not to leave the region in suspense indefinitely” since “the future of thousands of people” depended on these documents.
“For me, this is a sad moment for Autonomy. I’m not happy to see that there wasn’t enough understanding for us to get a document that would make life easier for the Azoreans,” he said.
On the sidelines of the vote, Carlos Furtado expressed his “indignation at the behavior of certain political forces” and guaranteed that he would be “available to work on constructive solutions” at the hearing with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

in Diário Insular–José Lourenço-Director

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.