Debate over autonomy reform gains urgency as regional model faces scrutiny

The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Angra do Heroísmo, Marcos Couto, is calling for a “clear, consistent, and unequivocal strengthening of municipalism” across the Azores—an idea echoed by former Angra mayor Álamo Meneses.

Speaking Tuesday during a ceremony marking the 174th anniversary of the chamber, Couto argued that after five decades, the region’s autonomy model shows signs of exhaustion and structural fragility. “At a time when regional autonomy appears strained, it becomes necessary to find new models of governance, or risk losing it,” he said.

A central concern, according to Couto, is the slow pace of decentralizing powers to municipalities—a process already underway in mainland Portugal. He described this delay as one of the Azores’ “great weaknesses.”

“While on the mainland we see a steady strengthening of municipal authority, in the Azores we maintain—and in some cases deepen—a centralized model,” he said. “A model that limits, constrains, and often wastes what we have best to offer.”

Couto warned that centralization has not been neutral in its effects, pointing to what he described as the systematic waste of both physical resources and human capital. “When we limit the contribution of each island to the regional whole, we impoverish everyone. When we concentrate decisions, we reduce opportunities. When we ignore talent, we mortgage the future,” he added.

During the ceremony, the chamber awarded honorary membership to Álamo Meneses and Luís Silveira, the former mayor of Velas, São Jorge. Couto praised both figures as rare examples of strong collaboration between local government and business associations, highlighting “proximity, institutional respect, and, above all, shared strategic vision.”

In remarks to Diário Insular, Meneses said the debate over municipalism is particularly timely as the region marks 50 years of autonomy, though he acknowledged internal resistance to reform.

“Some see this as an anti-autonomy shift that could weaken regional governing bodies,” he said. “I see the opposite—it is a way to strengthen them, allowing those institutions to focus on broader functions while municipalities take on more localized governance.”

Meneses emphasized that the goal is to bring governance closer to citizens by integrating municipalities more fully into the autonomous framework—something he argues has yet to be achieved.

He cautioned, however, against directly replicating the national model. Instead, he proposed an approach tailored to the archipelago’s realities: creating intermunicipal communities on each island and, where only one municipality exists, assigning those powers directly to it.

“What is at stake is the delegation of responsibilities and the creation of coordination structures at the island level,” he said. “Dividing this into 19 municipalities makes little sense—organizing across the nine islands is sufficient.”

For Meneses, the issue goes beyond the relationship between the Azores and the Portuguese state. “Reforming autonomy is not only about that relationship—it also requires an internal reorganization of the autonomous system, which, in my view, is even more urgent,” he said.

He pointed to practical benefits, including improved coordination between islands and greater local capacity to manage infrastructure and services—reducing disparities and inefficiencies across the archipelago.

As the conversation unfolds, both leaders frame municipal reform not as a challenge to autonomy, but as a necessary evolution—one aimed at making governance more responsive, balanced, and attuned to the lived realities of island communities.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço-director