A decade after arriving at the presidency of the Madeira Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque added another victory on Sunday and, despite having failed the absolute majority, reinforced the vote and won four more deputies.
The PSD won, in in the parish where the regional leader of social democrats, Miguel Albuquerque, was born, and also in the parish where the head of the socialists, Paulo Cafôfo, is natural.
According to provisional official data from the electoral night of Sunday, with all parishes cleared, São Pedro, where Miguel Albuquerque (president of the regional government since 2015 and again candidate) was born, was the first parish of the municipality of Funchal to close the results, and the PSD increased by May last year, to 37.40%.
The second most voted political force was JPP, with 22.28%, followed by the PS, with 17.43%.
The vote of the PSD was even more significant in Santa Luzia, parish in the municipality of Funchal where Paulo Cafôfo (also regional leader of the socialists) was born, with 41.75% of the votes.
The PS was 16.34%, behind JPP, with 19.80%.
Missed very little for PSD to make the full in Madeira
The PSD won in 10 of Madeira’s 11 municipalities, highlighting Machico’s recovery, which in the previous regional elections in 2024 had lost to the PS.
According to the data provided by the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the only Madeiran county where the PSD lost was Santa Cruz, where JPP remained as a most voted political force.
The PSD, which won Sunday’s elections with 43.43%of the total votes and 23 deputies, failing by one absolute majority, got an absolute majority in five Madeiran municipalities: Calheta (58.77%), Ponta do Sol (54.66%), Ribeira Brava (53.07%), Porto Moniz (52.49%) and São Vicente (51.63%).
The PSD was the most voted, but without absolute majority, in Lobos Chamber (49.09%), Porto Santo (46.20%), Santana (44.37%), Funchal (40.91%) and Machico (40.12%).
In the general counting of the elections, the JPP reached 21.05% of the votes and 11 terms in the Regional Parliament, while the PS had 15.64% and eight seats in the regional legislative assembly, followed by the arrival, which elected three deputies, and IL and CDS-PP, which obtained one each.
Six years without absolute majority
In 2019 and 2023 social democrats needed to make parliamentary agreements (first with CDS-PP and then with PAN) to reach the number of deputies needed for the absolute majority (24).
After the 2024 elections, also anticipated, the PSD (19 deputies) formed a minority executive, as the agreement signed with the CDS (two elected) was insufficient for the absolute majority. The PS and JPP, which totaled 20 deputies, then proposed a government solution.
These anticipated elections of Madeira, the third in about a year and a half, took place with 14 applications to compete in the 47 seats in the regional parliament in a single circle: CDU (PCP/PEV), PSD, Free, JPP, New Right, Pan, Madeira Strength (PTP/MPT/RIR), PS, IL, PPM, BE, ARRISE, DNA and CDS.
The suffrage occurred 10 months after the previous ones, following the approval of a censorship motion presented by the arrival, which justified it with judicial investigations involving members of the Regional Government, including the president, Miguel Albuquerque (PSD), and the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly by the President of the Republic.
