“Azoreans, wherever you are, I wish you an excellent 2025 with health, peace, and a renewed hope for the future. Hope that our individual and collective wishes will come true.
Today, I want to discuss my two wishes for this new year: a better world and a more prosperous Azores. These are troubling times. The world continues to be the scene of conflicts, wars, and insecurity. But I ask you: is death and destruction the solution to any problem? Obviously not!
What I want – and what we should all want – is for 2025 to mark a turning point. May it be the year in which humanity understands that true power lies in dialogue, reconciliation, and the ability to build bridges where there were once walls.
May peace cease to be a distant ideal and become a concrete reality, the fruit of our collective determination. And what do I hope for the Azores in 2025? I hope that we continue to build and consolidate a more prosperous region. It’s not a utopia. It is an achievable goal if we believe in it and work together.
We know we are small, outermost islands with enormous constraints and challenges. But this reality, far from limiting us, should inspire us to innovate and maximize our potential.
With strategic vision, we can turn these challenges into opportunities and build a solid, sustainable, and innovative economy capable of ensuring a prosperous future for all Azoreans, without exception.
I am well aware of the power and importance of the public sector in small, dispersed territories. However, I believe that a robust economy is the foundation of three key objectives for our future: Generating opportunities to attract and retain young people. Only in this way will we be able to reverse the demographic trend threatening us, guaranteeing jobs with better and fairer wages and real opportunities for growth that will make the Azores a place where young people choose to live.
Balancing public finances. Along with the urgent revision of the Regional Finance Law and the reduction of expenditure, a strong economy will greatly increase our revenues.
It will also make it possible to – Fight poverty sustainably. It goes without saying that supporting those in need is unquestionable. But only by breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty, with training, qualifications, and decent jobs, will we free many Azoreans from poverty and build a fairer society. In my opinion, this must be our path and our ambition.
Fortunately, positive indicators in our economy need to be continued and consolidated. Only in this way will we fulfill one of the main goals of our Autonomy: to guarantee economic, social, and territorial cohesion between all the islands and convergence with the growth of the country and the European Union.
Azoreans, let’s shake off fatalism, disbelief, and pessimism. We are capable! Let’s believe in the opportunities that our land offers. This is a well-deserved word of confidence and encouragement to our entrepreneurs.
In this spirit of hope, I have recently tried to present the Azores as a land of opportunities, encouraging and motivating young people to return to be entrepreneurs and active agents of the transformation we want for our land.
But to do this, we must be aware that the Azores’ future depends on each of us. And, above all, on young people. I want a society with greater citizen participation and more justice.
I call for a modern and agile public administration that promotes and does not inhibit investment and modernization. I want an economy capable of offering better salaries. I reaffirm the need for rigor in applying our resources, which are increasingly scarce – whether they are our own funds, EU funds, or those of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
I call on us to start preparing for the period after the PRR and to be attentive to the preparation of the European Union’s next Multiannual Financial Framework.
As you can see, my fellow Azoreans, collectively, we have a lot of work to do over the next few years, and we need political and social dialogue to build solid solutions. This mission requires political, economic, and social actors who are mature, responsible, and willing to commit to the Azores.
I believe we will succeed. I believe in the Azoreans and our ability to overcome challenges by using our Autonomy, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
I renew my wishes for a good 2025 for each of you. May it be a year of peace, achievement, and, above all, health.
Happy New Year!”

Luís Garcia
President of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores

In Diário dos Açores, 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 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.