After Miguel Albuquerque was named a defendant in the investigations that yesterday led to searches of the Madeira regional government and his own home, PS Madeira joins the opposition chorus and calls for the social democrat’s resignation from the regional government. “We cannot be governed by someone who is not worthy of our trust”, says Paulo Cafôfo, leader of PS-Madeira.
“Miguel Albuquerque was named a defendant and is suspected of several corruption crimes. Given these facts, he no longer has the conditions to govern Madeira”, says the Madeiran socialist leader, who is also head of the PS list for the legislative elections in the Madeira constituency.
For Cafôfo, Albuquerque “irreversibly and irremediably lost the trust of the people of Madeira and Porto Santo”, which is why he demands his resignation.
The leader of PS Madeira, however, does not answer whether or not he intends to present a motion of censure against the government in Parliament, although he says that “a turning point has arrived” and that the PS is “prepared” to govern the autonomous region.
“Democracy is not this, everything cannot go in politics, e Madeira cannot be a kind of wild west”, he also says, accusing Albuquerque of leaving Madeira immersed in a “swamp” and of treating the judicial investigation with “lightness”.
Proof of this is the fact that he has not yet requested the waiver of his immunity as a State counselor. “We ask that Miguel Albuquerque request the lifting of the immunity he has as state councilor, so that justice can work fully and the truth can be ascertained. What is Miguel Albuquerque afraid of? Of being detained like Pedro Calado was [presidente da câmara do Funchal]?”, he shoots.