The constituent session of the 13th Legislature of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores (AL- RAA) is scheduled for 3pm today in Horta.
This session will see the election of the Bureau of the 13th Legislature of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, and it is expected that the Social Democrat Luís Garcia will be re-elected as President of Parliament.
The expectation is for the election of the vice-presidencies since Chega will be running for one of them.
To do so, he needs the votes of the Coalition. If this happens, it will signify the Coalition’s openness to a reciprocal vote for the government’s program.


After the inauguration, Bolieiro has 10 days to form a government.
José Manuel Bolieiro was appointed Tuesday by the representative of the Republic to form the 14th Government of the Azores and now has an unlimited period to present his Government.
According to Bolieiro himself, as soon as he was appointed, he intended to accept the process of taking office as quickly as possible. Still, he did not commit to any dates. Bolieiro could present the new government in the next few days or weeks, and only after he takes office will the deadlines start to count.
In fact, after presenting the Government first to the representative of the Republic, the swearing-in is scheduled in the Regional Parliament, and from then on, the Government has 10 days to present its program.
Once the document has been presented, Parliament has up to 5 days to debate and vote on the program.
For the program to be approved and, therefore, the government, a majority of votes must be obtained.
As the Coalition has only 26 votes, it needs the votes of Chega, as PS and BE have announced that they will vote against it.
Chega’s abstention is not enough. Even if Chega abstains, it won’t be enough to pass the program if all the other parties (PS, BE, IL, and PAN) vote against it (29 votes). In this case, one more party would have to abstain, namely IL or PAN.
If Chega votes in favor, the document passes with the rest of the Coalition’s votes.
Understanding Chega is always essential for the Coalition, and today, we will already know what signals the parties will give in Parliament.
Within the Coalition, there is a desire to speed up the whole process to conclude before the national elections on March 10. Still, the deadlines are very tight, and the vote on the government’s program will likely not take place until after the elections.
Bolieiro guarantees to strengthen dialogue with everyone
As we mentioned, José Manuel Bolieiro was appointed President of the 14th government of the Azores and promised to personally conduct negotiations with all parties.
The leader of the PSD/CDS/PPM coalition responded to the announcement by the representative of the Republic in the Azores, Pedro Catarino, with a promise: this term, he will “strengthen” dialogue with the opposition – and he will be the protagonist of the problematic negotiations he will have to conduct in the archipelago.
From Angra do Heroísmo, immediately after his appointment at the Solar da Madre de Deus, Bolieiro said he wanted to make a “commitment to democratic stability,” even without a majority.
“I will reinforce my willingness to engage in dialogue. Not just the one I’ve had so far, but with a reinforcement,” he promised. He added that, despite having “unequivocal” electoral legitimacy, this reinforcement of dialogue is essential “without losing coherence.” “It will be me and not another government member who will lead the negotiations and talks,” he promised.
A few minutes earlier, Pedro Catarino had announced his nomination for a new term, recalling the “expressive” victory of the coalition that Bolieiro leads, while noting that this time there is no post-electoral coalition or parliamentary agreement that ensures “unequivocal prospects for stability”.
Even so, he argued, about the vote on the new government’s program – which in the Azores is mandatory to take office – only the PS and BE have not promised to be open to a “possible viability.” The political forces have admitted to evaluating the majority’s proposals, including budgets, “on a case-by-case basis.”
Catarino, therefore, concluded that the regime is “open enough to accommodate relative majority solutions,” trusting that Bolieiro knows he must “promote constructive dialogue” and that the parties, in general, will be “aware of the negative consequences of a new political crisis” and that they will live up to the responsibilities entrusted to them by the voters.
The representative of the Republic for the Azores also warned of the consequences of a new political crisis in the region, but said he was confident that the parties with parliamentary representation would live up to their responsibilities.
“It’s now up to the Legislative Assembly to assess the Program of the new Regional Government and decide on its future. I am convinced that the parties represented in the Azorean Parliament aware of the profoundly negative consequences of a new political crisis – will live up to the responsibilities entrusted to them by the voters and will know how to make the most appropriate choices at any given moment,” he said.


Chega advocates “party understanding”, but didn’t mince words in their disdain for the CDS and PPM (both parties in the ruling coalition)


The leader of Chega-Açores, José Pacheco, stressed the need for political stability in the region and did not welcome the continuity of the CDS and PPM in government.
“These two parties were the cause of the current instability in the Azores. It was these two parties, which are part of the Coalition, that called for early elections to the President of the Republic, Marcelo Re- belo de Sousa, when Chega had left the door open for dialogue on presenting a second regional budget,” he said.
Regional budget,” he said.
José Pacheco reacted this way after the Representative of the Republic for the Azores, Pedro Catarino, appointed José Manuel Bolieiro as President of the Regional Government.
After considering the nomination of the most voted political force to be natural, José Pacheco once again reinforced Chega’s intention to be part of the governing solution in the Azores. A solution that will have to include the five deputies elected by Chega in the February 4th regional elections, “so that we can achieve some stability in government that doesn’t leave the lives of the Azoreans hanging in the balance”.
“Chega has the power that the people gave it. We had five deputies, who we elected by showing the Azoreans what we were going for. We’re unlike other parties who hide in coalitions and lose votes and deputies. We can’t have parties in government that have no political weight and were the cause of the instability that arose after the last regional budget,” said José Pacheco.
The Chega leader believes that “Democracy must now begin to function, through party understandings, without the need for further intervention on the part of the representative of the Republic, since it should be the political parties that resolve the democratic life of the Azores.”


PS criticizes the “contradiction” of the Representative of the Republic.


The Vice-President of the PS Azores believes that the appointment of José Manuel Bolieiro reveals a “very clear contradiction” between the representative of the Republic and what he decided in 2020.
“What we stood for in 2020 is exactly what we stand for today. The same cannot be said of the representative of the Republic, who in his statement shows a very clear contradiction with what his position was in 2020, when the PS won the elections clearly and unequivocally,” says Berto Messias.
In 2020, the PS won the elections without an absolute majority. Still, the leader of the PSD was appointed President of the Regional Government, who formed a post-election coalition with the CDS-PP and PPM and signed parliamentary agreements with Chega and IL, which guaranteed him 29 of the 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores.
Pedro Catarino explained that “unlike what happened in 2020, no post-election coalition was formed” and “no parliamentary impact agreement was signed to enable the forces with the greatest representation in the Legislative Assembly to reach the 29-member threshold.

from a Diário dos Açores news report, Osvaldo 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)