The PS will vote against this year’s Plan and Budget proposals, which it argues were negotiated by the Regional Government “behind closed doors with Chega.”
“The president of the government is the only one responsible for the politically irresponsible course he has chosen, and he can only complain about himself when, once again, he realizes on the horizon of the legislature that he lacks in parliamentary support what he has left in dazzle with the electoral victory he circumstantially obtained,” said the vice-president of the PS parliamentary group, André Franqueira Rodrigues, at the opening of the parliamentary days taking place in São Miguel.
The Plan and Budget will be debated and voted on in the Azores Legislative Assembly this month.
“These documents are practically the same as those that were rejected by the Azores Parliament last November and whose political consequences resulted in its dissolution and the calling of early regional legislative elections,” said André Franqueira Rodrigues.
The socialist accused the executive led by José Manuel Bolieiro of making “a mistake” and insisting on an error.
“The mistake is that it intends to make the Parliament of the Azores a mere guarantor of government policies, forgetting once again that in a parliamentary democracy, it is the Government that depends on Parliament and not Parliament that depends on the Government. It is therefore not enough to proclaim humility and practice political arrogance,” he said.
The regional MP stressed that a responsible government “cannot spend its life criticizing the PS and then expect the PS to be its life insurance.”

He added, “since this is a Plan and Budget that is in every way similar to the Plan and Budget that was previously rejected, it is only natural that the Socialist Party’s position is no different from the one we supported on that occasion.”
For the Socialists, the Plan and Budget proposals do not respond to the Azores’ challenges. “Firstly, concerning social indicators. During the time of the Socialist Party governments, the region was on a path to reducing the risk of poverty rate and was no longer the poorest region in the country. This path has been reversed since the Azores began to be governed by this coalition. We are once again the poorest region in the country,” lamented André Franqueira Rodrigues.
“In education, we don’t know what path the government is taking in terms of combating early school leaving. After cleaning up PROSUCESSO and announcing a Strategy for the Decade, the truth is that it was never more than rhetoric and has never been heard of again,” he added.
The MP criticized the tourism strategy: “The reduction in Ryanair’s operations to the Azores, negotiated by this Regional Government, is a very worrying sign of this retreat with a strong economic impact that all operators denounce and the Government stubbornly insists on devaluing.”
“In this, as in other areas, the actions of this government are almost always the same. When it makes a mistake, it hardly ever acknowledges it, and when it does, it’s usually too late and never takes any responsibility,” he lamented.
The Socialist also discussed the privatization process for Azores Airlines (SATA Internacional), which was recently canceled and should be replaced by a new tender. “The importance that the SATA group assumes for the Azores and the Azoreans demands more transparency, more information, and more truth than what has been the practice of the Regional Government on this matter,” he stressed.

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–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)