“Budgets are nothing more than pieces of paper painted with ink. They’re just numbers. We then have to see if these budgets are actually implemented. And this is what has also dismayed people a little, who end up seeing some works and solutions for their islands in the budgets, but from year to year they are reinscribed and put back into the plans,” said the MP.
Nuno Barata spoke to Lusa following his visit to the island of Flores, which ends this Monday.
According to the MP, these works are “presented once again, but then they are never put into practice and don’t actually solve the problems.”
In the meantime, IL/Açores will wait to see the 2025 Plan and Budget before deciding how to vote when the documents are considered and voted on in the Regional Legislative Assembly.
Asked about the situation he found on the island of Flores, the leader of the IL/Açores said that it was with “some sadness” that he encountered the same problems as three years ago.
The parliamentarian says he found “the same concerns, demands, and unresolved problems” and a “feeling of conformism on the part of Florentines.”
According to Nuno Barata, issues such as difficulties in the maritime transportation of goods, as well as in agriculture and the tourism sector, persist.
“Despite the attempt to sell the idea of a new paradigm, in the end everything remains the same on the Azorean islands, especially those with less access to the Azorean centralities,” he said.
According to Barata, the populations “see their problems being postponed, pushed forward with their bellies, with the populations conforming and disbelieving in the regional political class.”
He defended the need to give the inhabitants of Flores “some hope” and “encourage them to be firmer in their demands and positions.”
The Liberal Initiative (IL) MP began a four-day visit to the island of Flores on Friday, promoting a tour of all the archipelago’s islands, as he did in the previous legislature.

Info: The IL (Inicitiva Liberal) is a right-wing party. The Liberal is not in an American context but in a Libertarian perspective.

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