Never a truer word said.
The member of parliament for the Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) party in the Assembly of the Republic accuses the PSD/CDS regional government of “living an intolerable contradiction” by insisting on “the illusion of development based on the luxury tourism of golf courses,” preferring “to please those who spend their holidays in Madeira and neglecting the priorities and daily difficulties of thousands of Madeirans.”
Filipe Sousa laments that “the PSD/CDS government insists on selling the Region as a luxury tourist postcard, while thousands of Madeirans bear an increasingly pronounced poverty, a poverty that does not appear in luxurious tourist brochures, but remains in thousands of homes with families who survive on miserable salaries and pensions.”
The parliamentarian says that Madeira “does not live off golf courses, it lives off the work of the people, the young people, the families, the middle and working classes, small and medium-sized businesses”, and recalls that “the PSD/CDS government was elected to govern for all of them, that is its obligation and duty, it cannot continue to show this contempt, this detachment from the real needs of those who live and work in Madeira”.
Filipe Sousa cites figures from the Regional Directorate of Statistics (DRE) to support his criticisms: Almost 50,000 Madeirans live at risk of poverty; around 13,000 workers are at risk of poverty despite being employed; 23% of the population is in poverty or social exclusion, well above the national average; 14,000 people face severe material deprivation. “These numbers crush any propaganda,” he emphasizes.
According to the MP, while the PSD/CDS is “obsessed” with building more golf courses paid for with the taxes of the people of Madeira, “there are fathers and mothers struggling to pay rent, electricity and water bills, go to the supermarket or buy medicine.”
Faced with these difficulties, adds Filipe Sousa, the PCDS/CDS “builds golf courses, makes golden promises and talks about progress while the real Madeira sinks and closes itself off in an arrogant, insensitive and politically blind bubble”.
The deputy concludes: “The Government prefers luxury projects to policies that increase income, improve housing, reduce the cost of living, and provide social support. It prefers to please those who vacation in Madeira rather than protect those who live and work in the Region. The JPP demands that the Government wake up from the bubble in which it is hiding. Madeira doesn’t need golf. It needs fair wages and houses that the people of Madeira can afford.”