Thanks to the changes approved in the State Budget, the region may have resolved the necessary financial balance for next year. All in all, it has seen an increase of 300 million. Still, it’s important to understand where it came from: if we’re not mistaken, 75 million will come from a reduction in total debt, 150 million from an authorization for indebtedness, which is intended to consolidate debt and settle late payments, and finally, a further approval for up to 75 million, which is designed to finance projects under EU funds. Given this scenario, the regional government can breathe a sigh of relief because its life has been solved and its problems postponed for a year. The problem will be afterward. If we look at Lisbon’s “benefits,” apart from the 75 million equivalent to one year’s interest on the regional debt, the rest is debt, even if some of that debt will be used to consolidate the debt. Without wishing to be pessimistic, the most likely scenario is that we’ll end next year with more debt, not less. Therefore, in our humble opinion, we have to look for solutions somewhere other than this way. And that “somewhere” will be, in addition to doing our homework (trying to increase revenue and decrease expenditure), to focus, in 2025, on the priority of reviewing the financial relationship with the State, which is to say reviewing the regional Finance Law, without being tied to Madeira’s “agenda.” Solidarity has its limits, and the situation can be adverse to us. We’ve already said several times that we think it’s a mistake for the law to be revised jointly because the Azorean reality differs greatly from Madeira’s. Discrimination must be positive for our side. We understand that the law is single, but there would be huge advantages if each region defended its idiosyncrasies. The Assembly of the Republic reflected them in a single law. We can’t go into the next State Budget without this review being carried out; otherwise, financial autonomy will continue to be muzzled, and the solution will again be found in debt. We were talking yesterday about the “short leash” policy that wants us to be submissive, and the easiest way to achieve this is to drown us in debt. We can’t let go of the goal of building an internal market and to do this, we have to reform the transportation system; we have to create the conditions to produce most of the things we consume and even have the ambition to export to competitive markets; we have to be excellent at what we do and what we sell so that others pay their fair share. In short, we have to be autonomous.

Editorial of the Diário Insular Newspaper–José Lourenço, director, and Armando Mendes, editor-in-chief.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various newspaper editorials, columnists, thinkers, and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions from various spectrums on some of the archipelago’s issues.

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)