The leader of the PSD, CDS, and PPM coalition, José Manuel Bolieiro, will begin contacts next week to form the new government and may even start inviting people to join the new squad, a social-democratic source told our newspaper.
The same source confirmed to Diário dos Açores that Bolieiro will be meeting with Ar- tur Lima and Paulo Estêvão, leaders of the CDS and PPM, respectively, during these days, with a view to defining “the new cabinet and governance strategies”.
The government program should only be presented in the Azorean Parliament after the national elections on March 10, to which the parties in the Azores will now be committed during the electoral campaign.
Contacts with Chega were denied.
The same source also told our newspaper that Bolieiro has not contacted any other party “nor has he mandated anyone” with a view to forming the government, thus dismissing reports that there have been contacts with Chega or other political forces.
Today’s expectations are centered on the meeting of the PS-Azores Secretariat, which is expected to define its position on the viability of the coalition government.
Vasco Cordeiro wrote on his social media page that the people of the Azores decided in Sunday’s regional elections that the PS/Azores should be in opposition, and that’s what it will do because that role “also serves” the people.


Cordeiro: “The people have decided, it’s decided!”
“The people have decided, it’s decided! The people have decided who won the elections, with the prerogatives and responsibilities that come with that. My congratulations go to them,” said the PS/Azores leader in the publication.
Two days after the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition, led by José Manuel Bolieiro and in power in the region since 2020, won the regional elections, Vasco Cordei- ro said that the Azoreans had decided “who should be in the opposition, with the prerogatives and responsibilities that come with that”.
“Clearly, [the people] decided that the PS/Açores should be in the opposition. This is what the PS/Açores will do, with the ‘salutary warning’ – to use Vitorino Nemésio’s expression that the people of the Azores are also being served!” he concluded.
The Socialist thanked “all those who exercised their right to vote and did their duty” and, in particular, those who showed their confidence and collaborated in the candidacy he led.


PSD strengthens support for Bolieiro
For its part, the PSD/Azores reaffirmed that José Manuel Bolieiro has the “firm intention” of leading the Azorean Executive with a relative majority, even though the regional leader of Chega said that the Social Democrat might have to change his mind.
“He [José Manuel Bolieiro] says a lot of things, but he may have to change his mind,” said José Pacheco, leader of Chega/Açores, saying that “informal contacts” have already been made with “senior leaders” about a possible agreement with the PSD.
An official PSD/Azores source “does not confirm any contacts” with the Chega regional leader and guarantees that “it is the president’s firm intention to govern with a relative majority”. The President of the
nal Social Democrat and leader of the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition, José Ma- nuel Bolieiro, said on Sunday that he will govern with “a relative majority”, stressing that “a victory is never a minority”.
“I will govern with a relative majority. And it’s not a minority, a victory is never a minority, it’s a majority of votes and mandates,” he told reporters after his victory speech at the PSD/Açores headquarters in Ponta Delgada, alongside the Social Democrat leader, Luís Montenegro.
Pacheco wants to go into government.
José Pacheco reaffirmed that the party rejects a parliamentary agreement, as happened in 2020: “There is no agreement. We are willing to go into [regional] government.”
He added that Informal contacts “are just conversations between people who know and like each other and exchange a few impressions.” Pacheco repeated that he is available to talk to Bolieiro, rejecting talks with the local leaders of the CDS-PP and PPM, Artur Lima and Paulo Estêvão, respectively.
On election night, when Chega considered himself to be the party with the most to celebrate, the leader even said that any agreement would be made impossible by the presence of the CDS and PPM in the executive.
“We have to take this government seriously. We’re not going to make the mistakes that were made in three years. Parliamentary influence was a serious mistake. We have to be there [in the Regional Government], we have to take charge of the areas and we have to sit at the table and monitor. The Government Program must also include our flags. We’re not leaving here. I think the PSD also has to be open to this. And there is that openness,” he said.


It should be remembered that the representative of the Republic for the Azores, Pedro Catarino, plans to hear the political parties with representation in the Legislative Assembly on February 19 and 20 after the official results of Sunday’s regional elections have been published.
In a statement released on Monday, Pedro Catarino revealed that “as has been the practice in previous elections, he will await the publication in the Diário da República of the official map with the election results in order to proceed with the hearing of the political parties represented in the Legislative Assembly, with a view to the nomination of the President of the Regional Government and the subsequent appointment of a new executive.”
In Sunday’s regional legislatures, the PSD/CDS-PP/ PPM coalition won and secured 26 deputies, Chega five and IL one, i.e., two more seats than the 29 needed to secure an absolute majority.
In 2020, PSD, CDS-PP, and PPM, who then ran separately, also managed to elect 26 MPs (PSD 21, CDS-PP three, and PPM 2), and agreements were reached with Chega and IL. Now, Chega has more than doubled its number of deputies, from two to five, while IL has kept the seat it won for the first time in 2020.
On the left, the PS won 23 parliamentary seats, two fewer than in previous regional elections, and the BE lost one of its two MPs. PAN once again secured a seat in the regional parliament.
These three political forces together have just 25 deputies, four short of an absolute majority.
In November, the abstention of Chega and PAN and the votes against by PS, IL, and BE led to the approval of the Azores Budget for this year and, the following month, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, announced the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly and the scheduling of elections.

in Diáio dos Açores-Osvald Cabral, 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–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)