Jardim steps down, 2014 in review

Jardim resigned as head of the Regional Government on the 12th of January, following internal elections won by the former mayor of Funchal, Miguel Albuquerque. The latter beat Jardim's appointed successor, Miguel António Correia, in the second round of elections.

2014 was rather depressing. Not only was the Cuba Livre hidden debt investigation shelved by the prosecutor, despite having found that the debt was deliberately hidden. Nobody was held accountable, which is typical of the Public Prosecution in Portugal.

The eight PND activists accused in the protest held in the Jornal da Madeira were convicted. The judge, Joanna Dias, known to be pro-regime even noted that it was not proved that the Jornal is not impartial - when even the candidates to the leadership of the PSD were publicly protesting its being an instrument of Jardim. The judgement is being appealled.

In the light of the judgement, the PND put in a request that the cases brought against the Jornal for election violations be speeded up. Two weeks later they were all shelved with absolutely absurd premises. Such as that the newspaper was not responsible for opinion pieces, ignoring the fact that all the opinion peices were written by Jardim's party members and there was no pluralism of opinion whatsoever. In one case the prosecutor even ignored completely two decisions of the Constitutional Court taken before the elections, which the Jornal chose to ignore. We appealed both.In the first case, the judge maintained the Public Prosecutor's view; in the second, the one with the two decisions of the Constitutional Court, the judge has remained silent...

Gil Canha and I were also convicted in the lower court in two libel cases brought against the Garajau over the Ports case.  Last year, however, the Supreme Court acquitted the Sol newspaper, against which the Ports had brought an action against an article which covered most of the same material. As our lawyer pointed out, the jurisprudence is shifting from the Courts protecting the powerful, to protecting the right to criticise, even if the criticisms are unpleasant.

In Court the accusation lawyer made much of his friendship with Cristina Pedra and that she had been appointed advisor to the Court, such was her fantastic reputation. He centered his attack on the fact we were convinced that criminal accusations would result of the investigation, which turned out not to be the case. Our lawyer then proceeded through all the scams the company had made, that despite not being criminal, due to the nature of the company, meant that perhaps Cristina Pedra may not be held up to be the saint she was being portrayed as being, but rather as an ordinary mortal. He noted the political controversy over the ports monopoly, which still exists to this day, and the political role of the Government in maintaining the system, and the sale of its quota of the company soon after the facts which were subject of the investigation became public.

The Ports Monopoly Discussed in Parliament

The Socialist Party proposal for getting rid of the Sousa Group ports monopoly was discussed in Parliament yesterday but its discussion was put off by Jardim's party.

According to the CDS, the Sousas have been operating on a temporary license for nineteen years. All parties were against the fact the Sousas pay the Government, and therefore the region, NOTHING in return for the use of the license to operate using the ports facilities and infra-structure. This while practicing some of the highest prices in Europe, if not in the world.

Even the PSD, in the person of Jaime Filipe Ramos, who sits two chairs away from his daddy, the party's parliamentary leader, recognized that the current arrangement must be changed and that an alternative is being drafted by the Government. By whom and for when we do not know, but it was more than obvious that this news had a nauseating effect on Miguel de Sousa, whose face dropped to the floor.

Miguel de Sousa, a PSD backbencher is cousin of the Ports Monopoly Sousas, and also Jardim's latest challenger. Sousa is a more discreet and sophisticated operator than the Ramos clan, and those connected to him have been very nicely rewarded. Apart from his cousins who secured the Ports Monopoly, Sousa was also instrumental in setting up the 30 year concession for the running of the Madeira 'offshore' which was secured by the Pestana Group (again without public tender,)…of whom he is a business partner.

Since the construction sector, which was the main dominion of the Ramos family, has dried up, they now look on the ever-flourishing Sousa family with a distinctly less benevolent eye.

Jornal publishes PSD results before they occurred!

The Jornal yesterday published the results of the PSD Regional Council meeting before they were actually voted. Albuquerque's motion to anticipate the party leadership elections was reported to have been voted down before the actual voting took place. The PSD militants greeted this act with shock and surprise, but to those in opposition it's no surprise. Jardim has always been obnoxious about flouting all rules and laws.

Even more amazing is that the Jornal refused to publish two pages of paid publicity: Jardim's latest rival, Miguel de Sousa's political program. This is a government-owned newspaper, which receives four million Euro per year to cover its losses, mismanagement and so on… and which refuses paid publicity. Let it be said that the PSD's  (i.e. Jardim's) programs are always published for free in this newspaper and sometimes they run to a dozen pages spread over several issues. The opposition's programs are naturally boycotted and obviously they do not want to support the dictator paper with publicity. For the Jornal to refuse publicity from a PSD candidate really shows  the depths to which the regime has sunk.

Of course, the person who is really morally responsible for this state of affairs- THE ONLY ONE - is the bishop of Funchal, D. António Carrilho, for the newspaper's editorial statutes confer him the power to designate the executive editor and to orient the paper's editorial line. The bishop both refuses to take on his duties and refuses to resign from them: He acknowledges that he gives Jardim full power to do as he pleases with the paper, but insists on remaining his alibi: that the editorial power lies not in the hand of the Government but of the CHURCH.

Madeira is a real case study into how democracy can be totally subverted.

Jardim fed up with his party after 36 years in power

Jardim completed 36 years in power at the head of the regional government this week and is three months away from breaking Salazar's record for longevity in power.

He now says he is not fed up with Madeira but with his own party and is considering forming his own party.

The statement coincides with the declared intnetions of his pal Garbiel Drumond, head of FAMA, the Forum for Autonomy, of which Jardim is also a member. FAMA is the successor of the the terrorist seperatist movement FLAMA, which resorted to the use of car bombs to intimidate and persecute people connoted with left wing parties after the revolution. Drumond stated that he intended turning the Forum into a political party.

Miguel de Sousa candidate for PSD Madeira Leadership

Miguel de Sousa launched his candidature for the PSD Madeira leadership last week, criticising the unbearable debt which Jardim has left. Sousa, like the other two challengers is in favour of early elections, saying that it makes no sense to leave the party's internal elections till December.

Jardim has reacted saying that he is not addicted to power, but will not accept early elections, adding that if President Cavaco does not accept the handover of Government to his successor in December, he will opt to stay until the end of his mandate in 2015

Albuquerque acuses Jardim of rigging the last leadership elections

Miguel Albuquerque, reacting to Jardim's machinations to remove him from the leadership elections yesterday stated:

"The bolshevik fetish of punishing the right to opinion and the situation of personal and political persecution which is lived today within the PSD-M is not acceptable in a democratic party and regime". (Though apparently it was acceptable when the victims were not party members) He considers the disciplinary process moved against him "a cowardly expedient used by the current leader to cheat in the next internal elections, as happenedalready in the previous ones, to his benefit". (Albquerque does not seem to mind Jardim cheating in non-party elections though).

The former Euro-MP and also candidate to the PSD-M leadership, Sérgio Marques, who has also been smeared by Jardim in the Jornal, has threatened to withdraw his own candidature, should Jardim bar Albuquerque's candidature for leadership.

Jardim tries to purge rival candidate

Miguel Albuquerque, the former mayor of Funchal has reportedly gathered the 300 signatures needed to call for an early congress in order to challenge Jardim for party leadership. Last year Albuquerque lost the internal elections by a margin of 2%. Jardim's popularity has since declined, but he remains intent on staying in power.

The Diário today revealed that Jardim has lodged a complaint to the party's political comission calling for a disciplinary process against Albuquerque which would result in a two year suspension of the right to vote or to be elected, thus frustrating the latter's leaderhip challenge.

Jardim acuses Albuquerque of harming party unity and of verbal ofenses. At stake are a series of articles published in the press. In one article, titled "The Witch Hunt", Albuquerque accuses Jardim of carrying out internal reprisals against those who do not bow to his authoritarian attitudes and are not intimidated by his excesses and insults. He lamented that democracy within the PSD had been stifled and questioned the lack of transparency within the party, saying that the rights of militants were being trampled underfoot to further the obsessions of a worn-out leadership which has lost its way and refuses to look to the future.

Madeira PSD expels 400 militants

Jardim's party has announced it is expelling over 400 militants from the party for being candidates or supporting candidatures that ran against the official PSD candidatures. This number is equals the number of expulsions the party is carrying out on the mainland, for the same reason. However, the number in Madeira has been admitted to rise to over 500.

These expulsions naturally have a great impact on the current party leadership struggle. Those who ran for independent candidatures are, if not necessarily supporters of Albuquerque, certainly disaffected with Jardim's dysfunctional authoritarianism. By expelling dissidents Jardim obviously intends to maintain his grip on the Party and ensure his own reelection, or the election of his "dummy candidate", Manuel António.

Electoral fraud has now become an issue within the PSD itself. Albuquerque has complained that he has no access to the register of militants and that many new militants have been admitted, but the date of admission have been left blank, to allow manipulation of voting rights.  The former EuroMP, Sergio Marques, has now also announced his candidature and has likewise appealed to fair play - that is for Jardim not to cheat and manipulate all processes and procedures to ensure a win. Hardly likely.

Former PSD Youth leader becomes independent in the Madeira Parliament

José Pedro Pereira, the former leader of the PSD youth abandons his parliamentary group to become an independent.

In a press conference to announce the move, Pereira attacked those in his parliamentary group ‘who stuffed their bellies at the expense of other, promoting a policy of mediocrity, ignorance and incompetence with the sole aim of maintaining their power within the party and so guaranteeing the continuity of their dodgy dealings’.

Pereira’s attack is ostensibly aimed at the PSD parliamentary leader Jaime Ramos and leaves the PSD majority hanging by a thread. José Pedro’s defection reduces the PSD MPs to 24; the opposition has 22. José Pedro’s vote could tip the balance in the Parliament should any of the PSD members absent themselves.

Such a defection in the PSD ranks is unprecedented and  viewed with some incredulity, since Pereira is one of the most radical supporters of Jardim. No one believes he could have taken this decision without his support. Cynics say this may be a move by Jardim himself in his party leadership race with Albuquerque: If a motion of no confidence is voted through, new regional elections would be called before PSD internal could be held, leaving Jardim to candidate himself for yet another mandate at the head of the regional government.

It all seems rather absurd, but Jardim’s thirst for power is quite irrational.

PSD infighting latest

Jaime Ramos, the PSD Parliamentary group leader is moving to have his party colleague Miguel de Sousa suspended from Parliament due to missing too many sessions. Sousa is known for just clocking in and out, but due to the Party's slim majority more discipline is now required. Sousa then urged Jaime to set the agenda for Parliamentary sessions well in advance so he could plan his time, whereupon Jaime showered him with insults calling him, among other things, a 'pimp'. Jaime's attempted expulsion of Sousa follows on the news that Sousa's law suit against him is set to start soon. The duo belong two biggest rival 'business families' within the PSD.

Meanwhile Jardim is also threatening to expel any dissidents who present independent lists for the forthcoming municipal elections. Young PSD militants are preparing independent candidatures for the Monte and Imaculado Coração.  

Parliamentary 'Pimp'

The PSD Madeira MPs meeting on the 14th was marked by new signs of internal struggle. Its Parliamentary leader, Jaime Ramos, renown for his civility and good manners, called his fellow party member Miguel de Sousa, the deputy chair of the Parliament, a 'pimp'. All because Miguel de Sousa wanted the parliament's agenda for the next few months to be fixed in advance.

None of the PSD MPs are allowed to miss a session for free that the opposition may gain the upper hand over their 2-seat majority and all of them have their business and leisure concerns. Jaime is free to set the agenda to his liking, which he does.

The insults - word has it that far worse expressions were used - seemed to be derived from business jealousies: Miguel de Sousa is closely tied to the company that runs the offshore and to the Ports monopoly, run by his cousin - the only sector that is not feeling the recession pinch; indeed freight costs have just been upped - Yippee! Jaime is the big man in the construction sector - once the Colossus of Government spending - which has now dried up, leaving his associates with considerable accumulated government debt.  Not a happy chappy.

Destruction of electoral propaganda case reopened

The Public Prosecutor's Office has reopened the case against members of the PSD Madeira Youth for destruction of oppostion election posters. The case had initially been shelved but was reopened due to new information. This may be related to the National PSD initiating proceedings to expel the former PSD Madeira Youth leader, José Pedro Pereira, for alledgedly destroying oppostion election posters, throwing smoke bombs at opposition rallies and other rowdy behaviour. José Pedro's followers are now accusing the current PSD Madeira Youth leader, Romulo Coelho, of involvement in vandalising oppostion election posters.

José Pedro Pereira, the former PSD Madeira Youth leader, is due to stand trial for alledgedly peeing on a police car and insulting Police agents.

PSD Madeira purges city councillor

Jardim has begun proceedings to expel Costa Neves, PSD City Councillor for Funchal, from his party (the news made front page of the Jornal, above). Costa Neves was outspoken in his criticism of the way the Regional Government is handling the reconstruction process following the February 2010 disaster. He also openly backed Albuquerque in his bid for party leadership. Similar proceedings were also started against another Albuquerque follower, André Correira, for alledgedly playing pool with militants of the Christian Democrat Party.

Meanwhile, the Government has also confiscated Municipal roads bordering on streams where reconstruction work is to begin. Funchal City Council had objected to the proposed reconstruction projects and to the timing of the works which will totally disrupt traffic in the city. Jardim's answer was simply to take over the land. Opposition parties had left the Parliament in protest, when proposal was voted

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).

Bertie takes it personally

With the internal elections approaching, despite being away from the region, Bertie writes a daily diatribe against Albuquerque in the Jornal. This is from yesterday's piece.

With the hypocrisy involved in this storming of the PSD/Madeira, organized by the same old enemies of the Party, internally mobilizing lack of scruples, we have seen the falsity of the statement "this is not personal".
So when someone launches an attack against the party leader, in public, with the help of the same old adversaries, this "is nothing personal"?
When they resort to the press which is hostile to the party leader - knowing that this hostility has a pathological bent - to make personal attacks attempting at civic assassination, without first having a loyal, eye to eye, frontal conversation,  they still have the hypocrisy to say "this is nothing personal"?...

When the Regional Congress of the PSD Madeira is to be held in two years time to elect the substitue of the current leader, do you think it proper that a "gang"  should organize itself for the most diverse sinister motives, within and outside the Party, to expel the person (i.e. myself, the great Bertie) who changed Madeira and led the Madeira PSD with success, wishing to humiliate him for personal "vengeance"?!
This is "nothing personal"...

Its unbelievable that a present day politician and leader can write and publish this kind of crap and get away with it. 

Bertie the Dictator to cleanse Party of rival's supporters

Bertie the Dictator cannot tolerate the challenge of having to face a rival candidature for party leadership and has promised to clean the Party of Albuquerque's supporters after the November Party Congress.

Never in over three decades has his party in Madeira had to vote between two candidatures and this is confusing many a pretty mind. Jardim's idolization within the Party has always rendered normal democratic processes a blasphemy.

From Bertie's perspective Albuquerque cannot be running as an alternative, but is the 'front man of the Party's enemies',  'trying to rupture the Party from within'. He is no more than a vain, opportunist traitor who bites the hand that feeds and 'stabbed' the great leader in the back.

Jardim has always purged and persecuted those within the PSD who challenged him in any way, however insignificant, which is one of the reasons no-one would ever even dare consider running against him... until now that his popularity has plummeted and people are totally revolted by him; They can't stand to see him or bear to hear his voice any longer.

Jardim advocates Separatism

Weeks before the Party Congress where his leadership is being challenged, Jardim ups the stakes and presents a global motion which calls for the separation of Madeira from Portugal... if the region is not granted greater (?) autonomy.

Jardim has always used the threat of separatism for pure demagogery, saying he did not advocate it but that the policies of his enemies in Lisbon and their 'attacks' on Madeira were stoking up separatist sentiments. He promised to take Lisbon's 'colonial' policies to the UN and so on.

His threats have always been part of a political ploy to stir emotions and Jardim himself has never taken these arguments at face value. The difference is this time, in desperation, he has gone beyond insinuating a separatist threat, to actually advocating the possibility of independence.

...But the threat is carried out without conviction and confidence. It is a written threat, lost in pages of a long motion, not one of his violent rants. The front page headline in the Jornal is revealing of his loss of direction. The separatist threat is relegated to a small headline at the bottom of the page, while the main headline is the increase in banana production!

Coito Pita on Albuquerque’s Oedipus Complex

The state-owned Jornal da Madeira, whose editorial line is totally dominated by Jardim, has intensified attacks on Jardim’s Party rival. Here is an excerpt from an article written by the regional PSD MP, Coito Pita, published yesterday.

If anyone, at the invite of the president of a party, has been vice-president of the parliament, vice-president of the party, deputy secretary-general, candidate for mayor, does anyone internally think it is normal that this person, merely out of vanity, should call into question the leadership of the person to whom he owes everything?

This is not a question of ideas, if so nobody knows them, its an internal split to satisfy his ego and the will of outside interests. It could even be so, but never coming from someone whose rise was due to the invitation of the person he is now challenging.

And its also not the application of the rule of democratic change, for one simple reason: even within parties it is unacceptable for someone who is part of a group to call into question the leader of the group, change comes from outside from those who owe that leader nothing.

This to me is immoral, it violates and offends my principles, it is unacceptable and unreasonable.

This is why our Penal Code uses the term qualified homicide to the act of a son killing his father, to show it is particularly reprehensible and perverse.

The article is revealing on the internal workings of the local PSD and the canine loyalty and total subservience expected of the militants and even of the leadership to the ‘great leader’ to whom every single member of the party owes his position.

PSD Party a flop

The PSD Party at the PSD foundation's estate called Chão da Lagoa, held on the 9th of September was a shadow of its glory days. Attendance was 10,000 short of last year's event and Jardim's speech was mostly targeted at his internal rival Albuquerque.

Followers of the former PSD youth leader José Pedro Pereira turned up displaying slogans daubed "there is only one President, Jardim and no other" and heckled Albuquerque during his speech.

The PSD youth elections in Funchal held later in the week had to be supervised by hired security in case trouble broke out between rival factions. Pereira's faction lost to the candidate of the current leader, Romulo Coelho, who has been criticised internally for not openly pledging allegiance to Jardim.

Jardim is said to be nervous about the internal challenge and has had his party machine phoning up militants to guarantee their loyalty to him.

Rubina Leal, Funchal city councillor for the PSD recently resigned from the PSD Political Comission, stating that she no longer believed in his leadership. She had in any case stopped being convoked to the Political Comission's meetings.

Jardim intensifies attacks on party rival

Jardim has been increasing his attacks on Miguel ALbuquerque, the Mayor of Funchal" in official speeches and in articles written in the Jornal.

Jardim refers to Albuquerque as "politically unemployed" and a "sorcerer's apprentice". In an article written in the Jornal (whose orientation is the responsibility of the Bishop) Jardim wrote that it is necessary to resist the internal enemy "formed by people without scruples or education, of those from the past and the present who have chips on their shoulder, those who are frustrated with life, those who are jealous, mercenaries e even those who despite being well treated do not hesitate to betray and stab one in the back".

Albuquerque says he will not be intimidated by Jardim's deliriums, by obscure fantasies which seek to create ghosts where they don't exist