2014. The year for Justice

My problem with politics in Madeira can no longer be considered political. Yes, we have an idiotic dictatorship, bit the problem is not the idiotic dictatorship itself. The problem lies in the dysfunctional justice system that allows the law to be trampled and democracy to be totally subverted.

Anyone who likes watching crime investigation thrillers or trial dramas on TV would be sorely disappointed by Portuguese justice. In fact, I'm sure that's the reason these genres do not even exist in Portugal. The reality is so drab and pathetic that it is not even good material for comedy.

As far as Public Prosecution goes, most of the time, the employees are not only demotivated, they don't know what they are doing, or have been instructed not to think. I was once called in for questioning on a case for which I had compiled a detailed dossier and was asked a series of inane questions, simple facts of time and place. I pointed out that all the information was exhaustively documented in the dossier submitted. The investigator looked at a loss for a moment and then began to ask me another series of questions about facts that were also documented. I was flummoxed and asked why I was being asked these questions. "Well, you don't expect the judge to actually read through this whole dossier do you?"

Portuguese justice is infinitely good as splitting hairs and debating formalities. The law is a realm of its own and totally divorced from reality. If it is forbidden to ride a horse down a street one could argue that the law had not specified white horses, so that is actually permitted to ride white horses down the street or mares or zebras. As a consequence of such absurd nitpicking, the spirit of the law counts for nothing, and taking advantage of the infinite numbers of appeals allowed - if you pay top lawyers - you can argue any law away into insignificance.

But to deal with the obvious and the blatant somehow seems to overburden the Portuguese system and fuses burn: Its forbidden for the Government to hide debt; the Madeira President publicly boasts he has done this; Its too much information for the Justice system to handle; nothing happens.

An investigative thriller in Portugal would amount to filming a bunch of people sitting behind desks, bored as hell, surrounded by piles of files and yawning. Cut to a nighttime scene of judges partying with the crooks they are supposed to be judging the following day.

Former Socialist leader again criminally prosecuted by Jardim

The former Madeira Socialist Party leader, João Carlos Gouveia is to stand trial for allegedly defaming Jardim next Thursday. I will be a witness for the defense.

The trial is another political farce, starting with the fact that the crime is supposed to be harsher due to Jardim being President of the Regional Government. That is the first big joke, for Jardim has no legitimacy due to the fact that his victories were won violating the election laws and resorting to Nazi-style hate speeches which in a decent country would have had him behind bars, if not in a loony bin. Yet despite all the proof in the hands of the Public Prosecutor's Office they seem somehow unable to draft an accusation to take the bggr to trial.

To Jardim, these policial trials are all a great joke. He shunts public money into the pockets of one of his lawyer friends, in this case his pal the PSD regional MP, Tranquada Gomes, and if things go well he gets to pocket a few thousand. Its one of Jardim's favourite hobbies, especially since it does not cost him anything...

But the funny thing it seems some one of the Public Prosecutors seems to also want to get in on the action. Maria Gameiro, the Deputy Public Prosecutor who notoriously shelved the fraud case against the Jornal - apparently she's ignorant of the law and blind to it - is also taking Gouveia to Court for slander. I really look forward to testifying in that case, I am only sad that it has been postponed.

Dissenting voices excluded from Bertie's Regional Congress

The Madeira PSD congress, held over the last weekend, showed Bertie stooping to a new low. To ensure a docile meeting and the usual fervent ovations to his two-hour-long speeches Bertie handpicked the 700 party delegates who were to attend. Left at the door and not allowed to enter were all those who had given their name to Albuquerque's candidacy: Pedro Calado, the deputy Mayor, Rubina Leal, former PSD commissariat member and others. Bertie's attacks on the traitors and enemies of Madeira, the internal and external ones, were met with the usual pavlovian enthusiasm and his motion would have been passed with totalitarian unanimity were it not for a lone hand raised in abstention: Miguel Albuquerque's.

Meanwhile Albuquerque's supporters are already loosing their jobs. Vanda Correia de Jesus who supported Albuquerque's candidacy has seen her contract terminated in some cushy, obscure Government department. 'Rome doesn't pay traitors', Jardim used to say when he hounded people who gave their face to the opposition out of their jobs. Now, its his own party members who are facing the same treatment (Vanda even happens to be the wife of a national MP for Madeira).

The Light of Thought

Testimony of Pedro Vieira in the book on Martins Junior

I was a young man of 14, but I will never forget that strange episode when we had a two week power cut during Christmas. Why? My father had had the courage to supply electricity to Father Martins Junior's election campaign kiosk for Machico municipality, challenging the dominant power. I confess we never saw with so much clarity in he middle of the darkness they wished to impose on us. We understood that liberty was about to cross the threshold of the City and that the day of victory was at hand.

On the 17th of December 1989, Father Martins won the elections. I remember that night with great joy and emotion. The people partied in downtown Machico, commemorating their own victory! For me, it was the victory of seeing the light. The fear had disappeared, the air was lighter, history had begun a new cycle. We were living "April" (i.e. the Revolution that toppled the dictatorship) in its plenitude.

Martins Junior: The Assault on the Church

Excerpt from the book 'Olhares Multiplos sobre um Homem de Causas' recording fifty years of the life of Madeiran priest and politician, Martins Junior

In February 1985, bishop Dom Teodoro Faria and President Alberto João, organised with the head of the Police, Nuno Homem Costa, the assault on the church of the Ribeira Seca. At dawn, on a dark winter morning, 70 policemen rush the church, smash the door, change the locks, remove books from the arquive, the sound system and other goods which were never returned. The mayor, Jorge Gomes and Father Pestana Martinho, priest of Machico also joined in the operation.

The parishioners who witnessed the arrival of ten police trucks told Padre Martins, "you can go, we'll take care of this". And so it was, Father Martins went to his parents' house, in Banda D'Ale´m, and the police occupied the church and the parish hall. All without judicial mandate. They remained there for 18 days and 18 nights.

Meanwhile, the priest gathered the parishioners in the hills of Ribeira Seca, praying and reading the Gospels. The people behaved with the greatest civility, in contrast to the fury of of certain policemen led by Homem Costa, who dragged people to the Police station and to the Santa Cruz Court, to be summarily judged - although the judge refused.

"During this time the priest said he would leave and so end the confusion, but the people said no", recalls Julia Ribeiro. "The church services  at the time the church was invaded, were held elsewhere in the parish, and there the people would gather to celebrate mass on sundays".

"The people would gather to celebrate mass", adds Maria Gomes, " but always quickly, for the police  might show up." ...

"The police were getting on well in Ribeira Seca and even got to know the songs the people sang, 'The Church belongs to the people, the people belong to God, What are the Police doing, In the house of God?"

After eighteen days and eighteen nights, silently and without explanation, the Police abandoned the church, leaving the people in peace.

Martins Junior became mayor of Machico and Regional Parliamentarian. He was beaten up and thrown out of Parliament by Jardim's men. He continues to be an outspoken and charismatic critic of the dictatorship. 

Ten Years

Yesterday I was stopped in the street by a sympathizer who said if only we had appeared on the scene ten years ago, things might have been different, we might have been able to open peoples' minds and change things for the better. People wouldn't have paid us any attention, I said.

Curiously, it has been ten years since I returned to Madeira and got involved. December 2002. In 2003 My sister and I protested the expropriation of the Hinton factory. My sister lay on the ground in front of the bulldozer. People were shocked, it was not the done thing!

When I returned my family were being treated as real social pariahs. Childhood friends would shy away and pretend not to see me, we were an embarrassment. We had been singled out by Jardim as enemies of the Madeirans who must be hated, ostracized, expropriated and expelled. We were an example of how he could use state power to persecute and destroy people. The Government proposed to pay a pittance in compensation and Jardim began a real hate campaign in state occasions and in the press, even accusing us of using slave labour. The message was not lost on anyone; they feared receiving the same treatment if they were associated with us.

We persisted. The following year, 2004, when the site was inaugurated during the election campaign, we lay on the ground in protest. On Jardim's orders, were hauled away by police in front of the national TV stations, which also broadcast Jardim's hate filled public speech against us. People began to timidly show their support.

Actually, the first protest had already attracted some support. It lead to me meeting the journalist Gil Canha (fired from the Diário for his 'delenda cartago: to unload a ship in Madeira costs six times more than in the Azores, Thank President Jardim').

In January 2004 we launched the first issue of the satirical newspaper 'Garajau'. We denounced what the other papers were afraid to touch, naming names. We expected not to last six months, but it was a success with the public. From the second issue on, the Government began to instal criminal proceedings against our cartoons, humor, opinion pieces, and much later for our investigations.

Humour, protest and making the justice system work were our three lines of action. We began to denounce the negligence and complicity in the Public Prosecutor's Office and in the Justice system. Naming judges and prosecutors who received favors. We started targeting entities to take a stand on the abuses here: Public Prosecutor's Office, National Commission of Elections, Press Entity, President of the Republic, European Commission.

We also launched court proceedings to, among other things, stop illegally approved buildings - something which was already being done by environmental associations and the then socialist, Filipe Sousa, from Gaula. In 2007, I  launched a case against the Funchal Centrum, the biggest building in the centre of Funchal - approved on the basis of an absurd appreciation that since it occupied a whole block it needn't comply with the city plan. Nobody had dared take on Jardim's right hand man, Jaime Ramos before. When the building was embargoed, Jardim had a fit, accusing us of being Ayatollahs and saboteurs and promising retaliation. The embargo was another shake to the system.

In 2007 we entered politics through the Partido da Nova Democracia. Our objective was to use humor, protest and the law to challenge the 30 year old regime. We (Gil, Baltasar, Coelho and myself) protested against Jardim's use of inaugurations for party political campaign. Jardim incited his supporters against us, we were heckled and physically harassed at every step.

Our political TV advert, in which we used the character Bexiga to make fun of the regime however, was a huge success. When we took him to a huge inauguration where a crowd of thousands had gathered and Bexiga began to meet and greet the people, just twenty or so meters behind Jardim, Jardim really blew his top and the situation nearly got out of hand.

We elected one Member of Parliament in 2007. The Public Prosecutor's Office allowed our case against Jardim's election crimes to prescribe.

We have not stopped since. In January 2011, we embarked on a mammoth task of challenging the Jardim's Party and exposing the regime's abuses in Madeira by launching José Manuel Coelho as Presidential candidate. In a society where people were afraid to criticize the regime, we managed to gather more than the 7500 necessary signatures. Coelho won 39% of the votes in Madeira, 5% behind the candidate of the PSD and CDS, Cavaco. A current of change had begun - the regime was shown to be vulnerable - alas, ten years too late!

PSD militants denounce PSD threats and intimidation

Tha Mayor of Funchal has been holding dinners in support of his candidacy for the Madeira PSD leadership, his supporters say they have been victim of threats and intimidation.

Among the measures denounced are the orders for public entities to 'scratch from the map' the owners of the restaurants where the dinners are held.

Some of the people present at the dinners have been summoned to the Presidential Palace and asked to reveal whether signatures have been collected at these dinners to press for a Party Convention in Spring next year. They allege that a number of supporters who are civil servants have been summoned by their superiors and questioned as to whether they know who they work for.

Worse pressures and outright persecutions have been long denounced by members of the opposition and civil society and even one or two high ranking PSD members have also resigned over the years in protest. Jardim's Party have always denied these practices, until now, when their own party members are being subjected to the same tactics long used to intimidate and persecute members of the opposition and dissenting voices from civil society.

One former militant and former shareholder in a company which won many government contracts and has since emigrated in disgust, told me the internal jargon used for these pressures is 'a lei do massacre' (the law of massacre). It consists of using every kind of concievable pressure both economic and from public entities to turn an individual's life into a living hell, until they cave in or have their livelihood and life personal life destroyed.

Mayor of Funchal denounces climate of Fear

In an interview to the Expresso, Miguel Albuquerque, denounces the climate of fear lived in Madeira - a situation long denounced by opposition parties, who have often been targets of political persecution.

Albuquerque's denounciations, however, refer to the climate within Jardim's (and Albuquerque's) Party, the PSD. He refers to threats of 'cleansing the party' and of summoning, one by one, all militants who join his candidature for Party leadership.

Albuquerque also denounced the non-functioning of the Regional Parliament, namely, because the Government does not answer before Parliament. The Government simply does not go to the Parliament.

The 22 Regional MPs for the opposition have signed an appeal to the Constitutional Court, asking it to evaluate the 'ilegality and inconstitutionality' of the current functioning of the Regional Parliament.

Funchal City decides to stop inaugurations during election campaign

The Funchal City Council unanimously approved a motion proposed by the New Democracy Party not to hold inauguration ceremonies during the election campaing period. The PSD's use of such official ceremonies for party-political propaganda during election times has long been denounced by opposition parties. This decision will significantly contribute to the fairness of the election process, which has been totally subverted by Jardim for the last three decades.

Jardim usually uses these occasions to make rabid speeches against the opposition parties and is shielded from criminal prosecution by the fact that his part's absloute majority in Parliament ensures his immunity is never lifted.

Albuquerque, the PSD Mayor of Funchal has reached the limit of mandates at the Funchal Municipality and cannot run for another term in office. Jardim has recently accused him of being a traitor and of having stabbed him in the back, due to the fact that Albuquerque is challenging him for party leadership.

Opposition Parties Sign Democracy Pact - Dictator Laughs

All eight opposition parties signed a pact for democracy at a ceremony held outside the Madeira Parliament this Monday. The opposition parties denounce the lack of democracy in a Parliament which lacks power to call the Government to account and which ends up as a puppet used to legitimize a de facto dictatorship.

Bertie, at an EU-funded official inauguration ceremony in the countryside, reacted saying 'this hotch-potch  means that none of them have any shame, coherence, principles or values'. 'These are the fascists and communists all in the same bag'. 'They have been together for the last 30 or so years (the time Bertie has been in power) and from time to time they do a clown act like this'. 'Although its not a laughing matter, because Madeira has many problems, the truth is that I have to laugh when I see fascists and communists and the whole mixture together, all of them totally shameless'.

Bertie is plainly totally off his rocker!

Bertie Skips Motion of No Confidence

The regional parliament, today, was set to debate a motion of no confidence proposed by the Socialist Party. The President of the Regional Government, who never goes to Parliament, simply ignored the debate, sending a single junior member of his executive to represent the Government.

In view of the Government's absence, the Socialists withdrew the motion, calling on the President of Portugal to either dissolve parliament or ensure the Government is present at such debates, as would be the norm in a real democracy.

Jardim called the motion of no confidence 'an episode of political terrorism mounted against the President of the Regional Government.' 'This folklore on the part of small parties aims to disturb government, through constant intentions to summon us to Parliament, when the government members are far too busy concentrating on the more important challenges of the future of the Madeiran people.' -  Bertie was due to be giving a talk to pupils of a school in Curral das Freiras. Too busy to be accountable to Parliament then...

Transparency, Debt and limit of Mandates

The Public Prosecutor's Office has denied it has found any new hole in the Madeira accounts, but does this invalidate the readings that the debt may now be over 8 billion? No, or rather, we simply don't know. It seems to be a simple game of semantics.

And why don't we know? Because there is no democratic system of check and control. The Parliament, does not function. The Government never goes there and on the rare occasions it does so, goes there on its own terms: it does not provide the requested information and allows no debate. It simply appears to make speeches. Last summer, for instance, the Secretary of Finances went to the Parliament to say the regional debt amounted to little over 1 billion; weeks later it had to admit that is was over 6 billion.

There is absolutely no transparency in the Madeira accounts and none of the State entities, Parliament, Justice System, Public Prosecutor's Office, function in way resembling those of a Democracy.

Why, is the President of the Government of the Autonomous Region of Madeira the ONLY elected post without a limit of mandates? Simply because the whole Democratic system has been screwed and manipulated to perpetuate the power and the abuse of power of one man - a man who cannot be held accountable to Parliament - or any other institution, for that matter - and who now spends his Sunday mornings preaching his theories to churchgoers in the churchyard after Sunday mass.

Many journalists and politicans absurdly refer to him as Europe's longest serving elected leader. There can be no comparison since no elected leader in Europe can serve for more than two or three terms in office ... and this rule is made precisely to prevent corruption and chronyism and so that noone can stay in power long enough to manipulate the whole system in his favour - to perpetuate himself in power (with abundant election violations from which he is imune from prosecution!).

Portuguese Parliament debate on Madeira’s Democratic Deficit, 1992

In May 1992, the Portuguese Parliament held a debate on the democratic deficit in Madeira. The speech of the Socialist MP, Jaime Gama, addressed the issues of the asphyxiating effect of party-political power on the administration, economy and society; the lack of control in the regional accounts; the government’s control over media; the climate of permanent intimidation; the disrespect for the opposition; the quest for constant conflicts with institutions; and the isolationist conception of autonomy:

‘4 – A climate of intimidation against those who disagree.

When, everywhere, democratic powers nurture criticism, independent judgment, analytic spirit, controversy, disagreement and the open confrontation of opinions, the Regional Government of Madeira systematically intimidates all those who dare to differ.

Government communiqués which, in principle, should be destined to clarify the population on matters of public interest are frequently used to insult the authors of any observation that does not conform to the official viewpoint.

The President of the Regional Government does not refrain from grossly insulting any citizen who exercises his right to air any heterodox view on the merits of the regional administration.

Civil servants are forbidden from airing their opinion (they are criminally sued) and their advisory statements (pareceres) are obliged to be free of any views that discord with the Regional Government.

In a traditional society, where nobody welcomes to see their name attacked or insulted, the intimidating weight of  verbal terrorism – to which the principal leader of the Government and the PSD leader of the regional parliament systematically resort to – is a powerful inhibiting factor and apolitical obstacle.

The reinforcement of autonomy in Madeira absolutely requires an end to this sort of practice. Democracy is not the tyranny of the majority.

5. The disrespect for the opposition – for all and any opposition -, namely in the Regional Parliament.

For the power installed in Madeira, the opposition is not another form of serving the interests of the archipelago, a possible alternative to the regional government or a healthy and necessary supervisor of acts of government. No! The opposition are purely and simply a band of criminals, who are treated like animals rather than decent citizens.

Whether a Communist or a Christian Democrat, an independant or a Socialist, anyone who opposes the PSD/Madeira has no reason whatsoever to exist. They are reduced to nothing, to a species of the most abject and despicable beings, their harassment as turncoats, delinquents or traitors, is one of the most perturbing aspects of the philosophy and practice of the regional PSD.

It is this totalitarian slide – which only does not reach a higher level of final implementation due to the national context – that leads to the level at which the Regional Parliament function:, a parliament where it is extremely difficult and indeed rare to be able to challenge the Government, to hold question and answer sessions, to obtain answers to requests or to constitute Commissions of Inquiry…

6 The search for a systematic confrontation with institutions

The logic of the behavior of the PSD Madeira has for long been that of de facto power, above all institutions and against them all.

For 16 years, the region has lived without a defined statute, a whim long tolerated and systematically used in a blind paranoia of confrontation from which no one escapes.

A trade union, an association or a party disagree – they are summarily tried, condemned and politically executed.

A businessman does not walk along the right corridors to win good grace – he is a vulgar capitalist.

A journalist, or a newspaper, does not obey – it will receive no subsidies, its (government) publicity will be cut, an edition or even the company will be bought, they are insulted and slandered.

A Bishop dares to refer to conditions of extreme poverty and promiscuity – there is an official communiqué against him.

The police or the courts want to exercise their functions in an independent manner – they must be regionalized.

The Armed Forces are not consistent with the whims of the regional authorities – they are a band of effeminate cowards.

The Minister of the Republic dares to veto a bill – he’s  ‘cuban’.

The Prime Minister and the Government will not pay off the [region’s] debt – ‘we don’t need the national PSD for anything and if need be we can always resort to those arguments that everyone knows’ [i.e. the independence of Madeira]

The Portuguese Parliament wants to discuss Madeira – it is not competent and its members, beginning with those of the PSD, belong to a base political class.

The President of the Republic says there is a democratic deficit in the Region – he does not deserve that people get out of bed to reelect him.

This activism, which feeds itself on the still unrelenting conspiracy against Madeira, devastates all and leaves no one standing…

Nothing has changed since 1992 and all these traits have only become exacerbated with time.

Private Eye on Madeira

(published in 2009)

With our cake, port and hardy island mentality, Madeira, an outcrop in the Atlantic and an autonomous region of Portugal, conjures up old-fashioned values. Our fondness for our traditional way stretches to our politics and a bygone era when leaders were no-nonsense characters who knew how to get things done.

Dr. Alberto João Jardim is such a man. He has been in power for 30 years (a little behind Colonel Gaddafi but just ahead of Robert Mugabe). As a young man he was an ardent supporter of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and wrote propaganda for its army, then fighting dirty wars in Africa. He was against multiparty democracy but these days Madeira is, at least constitutionally, a part of modern Europe and ours is an elected leader.

For this Dr. Jardim praises what he calls our "superior people", our blissfully few difficulties being the product of a "satanic triangle" between what passes for an opposition, the independent press and the English, who have long controlled our economy.

A place as special as Madeira needs a special kind of democracy. Thus our public prosecutors recently decided not to pursue a case against the violation of election laws on the grounds that the violations weren't serious enough. Opposition speaking times in parliament have been cut three times in the last year, provoking one opposition deputy to raise the Nazi flag in protest. The president (who is executive head of government) only goes to parliament once a year to get the budget approved. On this occasion, he answers no questions and speaks for an unlimited time, during which he insults every member of the opposition, one by one. The Spanish paper El Mundo calls Jardim 'El Maestro del Insulto'.

But why bother with parliament when one can speak directly to the people? In one year, Jardim managed to preside over 450 official openings: a roundabout, 100 meters of new road, any number of white elephants. The ruling Social Democratic Party has a policy of supporting an ambitious public works program; and who better to deliver on so many of such contracts than a clutch of building firms and one of the island's biggest suppliers of cement, in which, coincidentally, Jaime Ramos, the party's general secretary, is a prominent shareholder! He is also treasurer of the party's foundation which owns 40 or so buildings on the island, used as party offices and conference centers. The foundation also owns land in the mountains which served as a landfill site. Symbolically, it is now being converted into a space to hold, er, political rallies.

Madeira's publicly owned newspaper, the Jornal, officially undercuts its rival with a cover price of just 10 cents, but in practice is handed out for free thanks to the generosity of the taxpayer (€3 million a year) and the advertising departments of government  ministries and agencies, who contribute €500.000 annually. The paper toes a consistent editorial line, as might be expected when only Jardim's closest party allies are allowed to write opinion pieces.

The president, with no sense of irony, sees himself as something of a "godfather" figure, recently exhorting his party's youth wing to be a mafia "in the good sense". When João Carlos Gouveia, leader of the main opposition party, raised the issue of corruption in parliament, the majority passed a motion to have his mental faculties examined. Opposition MPs promptly walked out in protest - leaving the president's supporters to vote through 17 motions in a mere 15 minutes.

When Cavaco Silva, the Portuguese president, visited last year, Jardim warned that he should not attend parliament because it was filled with lunatics. Accordingly Cavaco received opposition delegations in a hotel room. He concluded his visit observing that Jardim's regime was a "model democracy". 

The Gaddafi syndrome

(Answer to Madeira Hole in the Atlantic)

Madeira's opposition parties may not be great, but the real joke, unfortunately, lies in Portugal.

Jardim wins election with blatant violations of the election laws - state entities turn a blind eye.
The opposition has as many rights in Parliament as they did under Hitler's Reichstag - the state entities turn a blind eye. President Cavaco even refused to go to Parliament since Jardim said the MP were a bunch of lunatics;
Illegalities and corruption are rife - the law and state entities are totally ineffective;
Local political parties denounce what is going on - the parties at a national level cover up for Jardim;
The national news networks judiciously ignore anyone but Jardim and his henchman Guilherme Silva;

Madeira, unfortunately, is a product of Portuguese disfunctionality. Jardim controls the press here and just like in Hitler's Germany, when the propaganda machine is so powerful and its principal message is to incite the population to hatred against the mainland, opposition parties and other figments of Jardim's conspiracy theory, then its hardly a surprise that Jardim keeps winning elections with absolute majorities. The surprise is that he is still treated with such deference at National and European level.

It is perhaps what can be called the Gaddafi syndrome. All the major states were willing to turn a blind eye to the abuses of his dictatorship. Gaddafi was whitewashed and you could rarely find any reference to his abuses in the press. He was portrayed as eccentric, exotic and maybe a little bit mad - and all state leaders were eager to do business with him - until a full scale rebellion broke out, then all those lovely business deals all of a sudden became an embarrassment. ..

Unfortunately, mainland Portuguese are too willing to view Jardim as a slightly mad, exotic, eccentricity - a  product of Madeiran eccentricity - and are unwilling to see their own complicity in maintaining the status quo of this idiotic dictatorship

Madeira's Problem: no democracy, no free-market

The problem behind the Madeira debt is lack of democracy. The Regional Parliament is powerless to check and control the executive since it has as much power as the German Reichstag after Hitler's 1933 Enabling Act. Jardim's unending program of building infrastructures, the main source of the Madeira debt, is used to finance his election campaigns, providing his main means of propaganda, the daily inauguration ceremonies held in the run up to elections.

The problem behind the Madeira economy is lack of free-market. Tourism is the only sector which does not depend on the Government and where the Government finds it hard to interfere. All the other sectors are heavily dependent of the Government, if not for custom and financing, then for getting past red tape and for 'favours'. The ports monopoly, for instance, was handed to the Sousa Group in a very strange arrangement. It costs many times over to unload a container in Madeira than in the Azores and this is one of the reasons why cost of living is high in Madeira, despite the EU susbsidies to keep it low.

Building construction was one of the dodgiest sectors. Many promotors had difficulty in getting building approval; they would sell their land only to find that someone 'connected', after a simple phone call, could build twice as much on it than they would be allowed. This has since subsided, partly because of the real estate market crash and partly because hundreds of people, fed up with this situation, resorted to the courts, moving proceedings against illegaly approved buildings.

The Government has hundreds of ways of favouring some and harassing others, be it through inspections, red tape or economic persecution.

The Rubber-Stamp Parliament

Jardim’s party is proposing to alter the rules of Parliament once again, reducing the quorum from one half to one third of MPs; i.e. to 16 MPs. The reduction in numbers of MPs elected by the PSD made absenteeism more of an issue. The PSD also proposes to move all voting to the last session of each week, basically so that its MPs would not have to sit through the debates. But the debates themselves have long ceased to be debates: parties with a single MP have only 2 minutes to intervene on each issue.
The PSD privileges ‘efficiency’ over debate in the functioning of the Parliament. An example of this efficiency is the occasion when all opposition members abandoned parliament in protest at a PSD proposal to submit the then opposition leader, João Carlos Gouveia, to a sanity exam. The PSD took advantage of the absence of the opposition parties to debate and vote through 17 motions in 15 minutes.
The CDS has proposed an alternative, more democratic version, which also obliges the President of the Government to go to Parliament for a monthly debate – Jardim has always refused to answer to Parliament and only sets foot in the building once a year to get the budget approved.

Commission of Elections snubbed by President of Parliament

Miguel Mendonça, the chairperson of the Regional Parliament, and most important regional figure in terms of protocol, has refused to greet the National Commission of Elections in the Regional Parliament. President Jardim had earlier issued orders that no one of his party should meet with the Commission.

Mendonça refused to greet the Commission stating agenda problems, but there is no reason why the Commission should not be received by one of the Deputy-Chairs of the Parliament, one of whom is the regional socialist leader, Jacinto Serrão.

Meanwhile, President Jardim carries on using official ceremonies to insult his critics and to invite the population to his party-political rally, to be held on the 31is of July. This is a golden opportunity for visitors to witness the ranting speeches of a power-mad politician, who has clung to power for over three decades.

The Joke Parliament

The Regional Parliament set the following made-to-measure rules of intervention to discuss the budget rectification:

a. The Government disposes of 15 minutes to present the budget rectification.

b. Parliamentarians are allowed to ask one single question, not exceeding the time limit of one minute.

c. Questions cannot be reformulated

d. The President disposes of one minute to answer each question.

e. No protests are allowed.

f. Following this, each group, in the following order is allowed to intervene for the following period:

g. PSD: 34 minutes; PS: 8 minutes; PCP: 3 minutes; CDS: 3 minutes; Bloco, PND and MPT 2 minutes each.

h. No protests are allowed.

i. The Government is allowed 15 minutes to respond.

j. No further requests for questions or clarifications allowed.

k. The parties are then allowed a further intervention for the same period above (g), but in reverse order.

l. The Government is allowed to intervene FOR AN UNLIMITED PERIOD OF TIME.

Obviously this is not a Parliament where there is any room for debate or exchange of ideas.

Soft Dictatorship or Muscled Democracy?

Many dictatorships coexist with some form of formal democracy. The holding of elections alone is no guarantee of democracy, particularly when these are not free and fair elections, as is the case in Madeira.

There are no political prisoners and disappearances here, but there are many means at the disposal of the party in power to intimidate and persecute dissenters.

The Government controls the economy and in a country where there is a lot of red tape, any business can suffer interminable delays in getting things done, while rival companies can sort things out with a simple phone call.

‘Expropriation’ is a fearful word here. The Government takes over your land, offering a ridiculous compensation and challenges the owners to dispute the amount in Court. The Court-attributed compensations are invariably below market-price, but even so, the amounts attributed are sometimes over four times the amount the Government was initially willing to pay! It can take over ten years (sometimes over 20 years) for the court to reach a final decision.

The President of the Government often threatens to expropriate people and to use government power to exert other forms of reprisal.

The state apparatus is one of the biggest employers here and many people fear that they or their family members may lose their jobs if they speak out or support an opposition party. ‘Rome does not pay traitors’ was one of the President’s memorable remarks on this situation.

The Government also hires friendly lawyers to criminally prosecute those who criticize it. There are dozens of such cases every year.

In his official speech, at the inauguration ceremony of a medical unit, held yesterday, President Jardim instructed the Regional Health Services, run by his cousin, Almada Cardoso, to sue people who had claimed they were victims of negligence at the hospital as well as the newspaper (Diário) which reported the allegations. Almada Cardoso in turn claimed that the health service was being used as a political weapon.  

‘Muscled Democracy’ is the polite term that many people use to describe the regime here;’ Soft Dictatorship’ is perhaps a more appropriate term.