Eight charged over Jornal protest

The Public Prosecutor´s Office is bringing criminal charges against 8 candidates of the PND, New Democracy Party, for the protest carried out against the Jornal da Madeira during the last regional elections campaign. The Eight are:

Marcio Amaro, actor
Dionisio Andrade, retired journalist, former president of the Madeira journalist's trade union
Helder Spinola, University lecturer, former president of the environmental NGO Quercus
Joel Viana, PND General Secretary, teacher
António Fontes, lawyer
Gil Canha, City Councilor, former head of environmental NGO Cosmos
Baltasar de Aguiar, lawyer
Eduardo Welsh, sinologist

Criminal proceedings were brought by the Jornal's director, Rui Nobrega Gonçalves, no stranger to the Public Prosecutor's Office himself. Nobrega has been investigated several times by the Criminal Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, but he seems to lead a charmed life. Recently, a corrupt magistrate in the Public Prosecutor's Office threw out an investigation into fraud at the Jornal which had been instigated at the request of the Court Auditors. The corrupt magistrate, by all accounts a friend of Nobrega's wife, who is a judge, simply chose to turn a blind eye to the law.

Nobrega's luck, however, seems to be changing, and his days of impunity may be over. The editor of the Jornal is being charged by the Public Prosecutor's Office with violation of the election law and the Public Prosecutor's Office has ruled that the charges have to be extended to the Company itself and therefore its Director, Nobrega. This is the first of four charges of election law violation brought against Bertie's paper.

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).

Billion Euro Loan buys Madeira's vote on Portuguese Budget

The national PSD Government has approved a new billion Euro loan to the Madeira Government in exchange for the Madeira PSD MPs in the national parliament voting in favour of the Portuguese Budget.

Passos Coelho's national Government has consistently shored up Madeira's corrupt dictator to ensure Madeira's four national MPs tow the party line. The Madeira Government, which has built up a six billion Euro debt, has not managed to reduce its debt at all in the last year. These loans to Madeira, which are apparently to help Madeira reduce its debt are simply doing the opposite - merely delaying and stalling the debt repayment.

Jardim is not trying to solve the debt problem he created, he's merely playing for time, desperate to cling on to power for as long as possible... and Portuguese government is obviously hanging by a thread if it needs the support of the Madeira dictator to shore up its own power.

Jardim beats Albuquerque by 2 to 3%

Jardim won a marginal victory over Albuquerque in the PSD elections, with 51-53% of the votes against Albuquerque's 47 to 49%. Albuquerque claims he lost by a mere 83 votes.

The result is a clear slap in the face to Jardim, who has never been challenged in an internal election and has always been elected by near unanimity: 97-99% of the votes, the remainder being null or blank.

Jardim's phyric victory only further weakens his legitimacy and prolongs the agony of Europe's longest standing corrupt dictatorship.