Alberto João feeds us!

Banquet for the masses at the official inauguration ceremony of the Cota 500 motorway. This scene is repeated in all the seventy official ceremonies in the period preceding the election. People are bussed in to eat and listen to propaganda.

New Democracy Party sit-in in the Jornal da Madeira - church

The New Democracy Party sit-in had the objective of drawing attention to the use of the Jornal for PSD propaganda in violation of the election law. The aim was to speak to the direction of the Jornal and to the major stake-holders, the Church and the Government.

Though the Church has only a symbolic share in the Jornal company, according to the company statutes, it is the Diocese (i.e. the Bishop) who appoints the editor and is responsible for guiding the editoral line. Over the last few years, the PND has repeatedly written to the Bishop to request an audience to discuss the Jornal. It was never granted.

On entering the building, the delegation was immediately received with violence on the part of the Jornal administrator, Rui Nobrega (marreid to a prominent local judge), who expelled the accompanying journalists from the building and tried (with the help of staff) to focefully evict the PND delegation.

Nobrega then lodged a complaint at the Police requesting a forceful eviction of the PND. In mid-afternoon, the Police informed the Rapid Intervention Brigade was ready to forcefully remove the delegation from the building. They were then informed that the builing belonged to the Diocese and that the eviction request could legally only be made by the Bishop. The Bishop refused to lodge criminal charges against the sit-in and later in the day, the Police informed that this being the case their mission was over.

Throughout the day, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the Jornal in solidarity with the sit-in. Various oppoisition parties made statements in solidarity with the action. The Socialist Party, the largest opposition party, stated that whereas the PND were barricaded in the building for a few hours, President Jardim has been 'barricading' himself inside for over three decades. The Animal Party also joined the protest ouside for some time and José Manuel Coelho, from the Workers' Party, parked his van outside and addressed the crowd throughout the day. The sit-in lasted until 20.15 - ten hours.

In the evening, the Diocese issued a statement saying it did not meet with political parties in the period preceding an election; it omitted to say that it has repeatedly denied requests made over the last few years to discuss the Jornal. The current Bishop is the cousin of the President of the Republic - a former PSD prime-minister, who similarly refuses to even comment on election violations in Madeira.

New Democracy Party sit-in in the Jornal da Madeira - reasons

The New Democracy Party staged a sit-in in the government-owned propaganda paper, the Jornal da Madeira. The Jornal has continued biased reporting of the election campaigns and had failed to comply with the National Comission of Election deliberation ordering it to respect pluralism of opinion.

The National Comission of Elections (NCE) had twice ruled against the Jornal for its biased coverage and lack of pluralism in two previous elections, remitting the information to the Public Prosecutor's Office. This, however, was the first time that the Comission had taken a decision prior to the election date itself.

The New Democracy Party had lodged a complaint regarding lack of pluralism at the beggining of August and the NCE deliberated in early September that the Jornal should comply with the law and observe the rules of impartiality and pluralism. The decision, however, was overturned by the Supreme Court following an appeal by the Jornal, saying that the NCE had not provided enough evidence. The Comission repeated its decision, this time with ample factual evidence and the Supreme Court upheld the decision, which was made public on the 22nd of September.

The Jornal has cut the number of its political opinion peices, but continues only publishing articles from the ruling party and it coverage is totally biased towards the PSD and the Jardim Government.

Madeira Debt: 5,800 million Euro

Two weeks ago President Jardim was claiming the Madeira debt did not exceed one year's budget, now he has admitted it is over four budgets. The revelations have been made due to the fact that the 'Troika' (European Bank, FMI and EU Comission) have been auditing the Madeira accounts and it was no longer possible to hide the magnitude of the debt. The audits had already uncovered a hole o 2,000 million Euro of undeclared debt. Oppostion parties fear the real debt is well over 6,000 million Euros and that there is more hidden debt that has not yet been uncovered.

The national PSD - CDS coalition government has refused to divulge what measures the international institutions are imposing on Madeira in order to reduce the debt and President Jardim himself (already taking for granted that he will be elected with a new overall majority), though he has refused to participate in any debates or reveal any measures to pay back the debt, has already stated that he will not comply with any measures imposed and has threatened to declare Madeira's independence.

Polls show Jardim set for new absolute majority

Despite his failing popularity this is hardly a surprise. The means he has at his disposal to campaign are overwhelming. 

Jardim controls the government-owned newspaper (jornal) which is totally biased and gives minimal coverage of opposition parties and none at all to the PND. The paper is financed to the tune of 4 million Euro a year and its 15000 copies are distributed for free throughout the island. The Jornal only carries (highly virulent) opinion pieces of Jardim's closest circle. 

There is no competition possible with this propaganda machine and the 'best' of it is: all this free publicity does not even eat in to the PSD campaign funds, its a a government funded newspaper! 

The other major scam is the use of official ceremonies as party rallies. 'With millions i hold inaugurations; with inaugurations I win elections', as Jardim succinctly put it. These usually involve the opening of  a new public work or private investment, where food and entertainment is provided and the local population is invited to hear Jardim's hallucinated rants against the opposition 'traitors', 'colonialists', 'foreigners' etc.  

Again, these events to not eat into his campaign budget since they are government or private funded.

Are these advantages legal? No, but state entities have up until recently turned a blind eye.  Had they ever obliged Jardim to compete on equal terms he would not have managed to stay 33 YEARS in POWER.

But the state entities are not alone to blame, for the larger opposition parties, despite moaning about the unfairness, have never seriously taken the matter up with the authorities or made a firm stand. This makes people wonder if they are deliberately playing to loose or are unwilling to take on Godzilla, head first. 

What are the clues?

Inconceivably, the Socialist Party, instead of pressing the authorities to oblige the Jornal to provide them with the opinion space they should be entitled to, is paying large sums for whole page adverts in the Diário (which does not even have such a big readership since it is not given out for free). Meanwhile, the CDS, while they complained to President Cavaco about the unfair use of the inaugurations, were themselves hosts to Jardim at a private inauguration during the last elections. 

Head of Madeira Tax Office Accused in Tax Evasion Scheme

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought a case against the Nacional Football Club for an alleged tax evasion scheme accusing the club of paying footballers through offshore accounts in order to avoid paying taxes. According to today’s Publico the document states that the scheme was mounted with the knowledge and consent of all members of the board, ‘composed by its president and eight vice-presidents’. Among the accused is João Machado, the head of the Madeira tax office, who was at the time one of the club’s vice-presidents. Only one of the vice presidents, Carlos Santos, then also head of the Public Prosecution in Madeira, was not accused. Since the Public Prosecutors cannot accuse their peers, he was subject to a separate process, which was later dropped.  The case dates to the 2002/2005 mandate and notes that both Machado and Santos resigned from the club leadership before the end of their respective mandates.

'ERRADICATE THE OPPOSITION MOSQUITOES'

This is one of the sub-headings of the article on the PSD party rally held on the 30th of July, published in the Jornal da Madeira the following day. It is unclear if this incitement was made by President Jardim or one of his fellow party members. Perhaps the Bishop of Funchal should clarify this, seeing as he is is responsible for the paper's editorial line. It is incredible that the powers that be continue to turn a blind eye to Jardim's excesses and appeals to violence, which apparently also enjoy the blessing of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Madeira.