The Madeira bail-out agreement, due to have been signed last Monday, is yet to be signed. The Regional Government is holding out, hoping for more concessions.
The Prime Minister stated, at the beginning of the week, that the Madeira Government had to adopt the bail-out-plan as its own and not view it as an imposition from Lisbon, to make Lisbon the scapegoat for the measures to be adopted. He added that the Madeira Government was the one who had to act in a hurry in order not to worsen the crisis.
Apparently, the Madeira Government does not share this view. Jardim’s spokesman, Guilherme Silva, let slip in an interview last night, that should the Madeiran finances collapse, the financial backlash would look bad, not so much for the Madeiran Government, but for the Portuguese Government, harming its ratings and credibility internationally.
The cat is out of the bag, Jardim is willing to let the Madeira debt crisis escalate, at a huge cost to the Madeirans, in order to pressure Lisbon to soften the austerity measures, which result from his own mismanagement.
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