What was different about the last elections

In a talk show, last week, the PSD representatives had a common theme tune: The choice of the people must be respected, after all, these were democratic elections just like all the previous ones.

Not quite. Although the result was no doubt due to Jardim's ever growing impopularity, there were also less violations of the election laws.

Jardim's trump card has always been the public inauguration ceremonies. These occasions were marked by huge banquets for the attending masses, preceded by  political speeches where Jardim ranted against the opposition parties. Two or three of these ceremonies would be held daily and Jardim's hate speech would be broadcast over television and radio...

This year, not only were the inaugurations fewer, but some were devoid of the usual banquets and Jardim kept his speeches impartial and short - less than two minutes. With several cases pending in the justice system for election violations, perhaps he was forewarned by state entities not to push his luck.

Jardim's other main weapon is the state-owned Jornal where the opinion-pieces are all written by PSD militants. In the run-up to elections, this usually meant three daily pieces praising Jardim and trashing the opposition. Now, however, most of the article-writers have dwindled away, and apart from Jardim himself, only one or two of his bootlickers remain active, and even their articles are luke warm.

The Jornal, however, continued to toe the line, promoting the PSD candidates above all others. In some editions, the PSD candidatures got twice as much coverage as all the other candidatures put together. A clear violation of the law, which should earn the director yet another criminal suit. Curiously, this bias towards the PSD candidatures was not due to coverage of the candidates themselves, but to the coverage of the campaign actions of a non-candidate - Jardim!

Court Ruling supports Audit Office judge against the decsision of the Public Prosecutor who decided not to send Madeira governants to trial

The newly appointed Public Prosecutor, attatched to the Madeira Court Auditors, Leonor Mesquita Machado, is reassessing the process which her predecessor, Varela Maritns, shelved.

The latter had decided not to send members of the Regional Government to stand trial, despite their existing indications of serious financial misdoings, namely of hiding debts in the Health and sports institutes.

The decision follows the ruling from the third section of the Court Auditors to ignore the complaint lodged by the Public Ministry against judge attatched to the Court Audit office

Jardim's PSD trounced in 7 out of 11 Municipalities

Jardim's party, which has held a monopoly of all city governments, was yesterday trounced at the ballots.

In Funchal, the Coalition for Change, led by the independent, Paulo Cafofo, secured 5 of the 11 mandates, the PSD came second with 4, and the CDS and Communists both held on to one seat. Its the first time in 36 years since Jardim took power that Funchal will be governed by a force other than the PSD.

The Together for the People (JPP) civic movement in Santa Cruz won an even more spectacular victory, securing 5 mandates, leaving the PSD with two.

 

 

São Vicente also fell to an independent candidature which joined members of the opposition with disaffected PSD militants. The independents won 4 out of the five mandates, the former PSD mayor will now sit alone in oppostion.

 

 

The CDS, Christian Democrats won Santana, securing 3 mandates to the PSD's 2.

The Socialists won Porto Moniz, 3-2; Porto Santo, 3-2; and  Machico 4-3.



The results have shaken the Jardim dictatorship, but he still intends to hold on to power, blaming the national government for the results and promising to clean his party of those who have promoted internal divisions.

Welsh and Canha vs Portugal at the European Court Verdict

The European Court has overturned a verdict condemning myself and Gil Canha of difamation. The case was brought against us by the Vice President of Madeira, Cunha e Silva, for a report written in the satirical newspaper, Garajau.

The article was about the contracting of the lawyer, Garcia Pereira, a leader of the Portuguese Maoist Party, MRPP, resorting to government funding to sue the Garajau over articles on the dealings of Cunha e Silva.

The accused were absolved in the lower Court, where the judge made some very pertinente observations on the way public funding was being against the press. The appeals Court, though not calling into question the substance of the facts, overturned the ruling, condeming us to pay compensation to the Vice President.

The European Court has now overruled that verdict, saying the judgement violated article 10 of the convention and ntoing that such procedures were detrimental to press freedom.

See:

http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-126356

Funchal Municipal Elections Forecast

A recent opinion poll carried out by the Expresso shows the opposition coalition within reach of the PSD.

The PSD leads with 36,4%, followed by the 6 party coalition headed by Paulo Cafofo with 28,8%, the CDS with 24,8% and the Communist party with 6,9 %. 17,7% of those inquired were undecided.

The poll shows the PSD share of the vote has reduced dramatically and that the opposition is in the majority.

The opposition coalition was open to all parties, but the CDS refused to join. They are benefitting from a drift of discontented PSD supporters, owing to the split within the PSD, between President Jardim and the mayor of Funchal, Miguel Albuquerque. Jardim has launched virulent attacks on his internal rival and accuses him of being close to the CDS and of being controlled by the freemasons.

The coalition is consolidating its position with a strong door to door campaign.

Jardim tears newspaper

President Jardim, while visiting the offices of the Madeira rally, took the opportunity to tear up a copy of the Diário de Notícias newspaper.

In the run up to the elections, the government owned freebie newspaper, the Jornal, has been covering almost exclusively the initiatives of the PSD candidates.

PSD Foundation received 1.1 million Euros of state funding

Jardim lied about state funding granted to the PSD Madeira Foundation. In 2011, when the national government anounced it was launching an inquest into foundations recieving state founding, Jardim stated that the foundation of which he is president had never received a bean.

At the end of 2009, the Madeira Social Democrat Foundation applied for 1.6 million Euro in rural develpment funding, related to the countryside estate where his party holds its annual political rally. The funding was duly approved and paid up: 518,530 Euros in 2010; 81,779 Euros in 2011; 268,460 Euros in 2012; 235,818 Euros in 2013.

It would be interesting to find out just how the funding has been applied.