(10th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Veto Of Cavaco Affects Jackpot – The President of the Republic gives back to parliament the finance law of the political parties. Cavaco Silva contests in a decision that has an effect on Madeira : hindering the legalisation of the ‘Jackpot’ of the ALM’. By way of background, the ‘Jackpot’ is a budget that was designed to fund the Madeira assembly (ALM) for a greater number of politicians than there are presently, and the current law allows the keeping of the excess money. This used to be split between the political parties, but that was found to be against the rules, so last year it was shared out amongst the politicians, who then gave it back to their political parties for funding. All the political parties nationally then came up with and agreed a different model, which will increase public funding, and that in itself would take the matter away from public scrutiny. But the President of the Republic has rejected it because of issues with exterior funding.
At an inauguration speech on Tuesday, President Jardim again expressed concerns on the growing popularity of communism, as expressed in the European election results on Sunday. He warns of widespread indiscipline and "civil disobedience" on Madeira, should the communists come to power. He then went on to reassure us that "We have, in my opinion, the security forces fully prepared to safeguard democracy". What on earth is this stunt Uncle Bertie is pulling here, clearly he is sending a message to the voters about something that will never happen in his political lifetime.
There are several new courses running this month in Funchal, one of which is ‘Local Authority Communications’. I think it is likely that my câmara won’t be sending anyone alone, as they are all already absolute experts. The policy is to tell nobody anything, and they execute that policy perfectly.
It goes without saying that after the poor turnout in Sunday’s European elections, that the debate is on about making voting compulsory for all eligible Portuguese.
‘Aigle Azur Working Out Connection Between Paris And Funchal – The French company has already announced a boosting of links between Porto and the French Capital’. "It is in deep analysis the possibility of making the connection between Funchal and Paris", announced the chief of Aigle Azur in Portugal, after breaking the news that the Porto – Paris connection was to be doubled from July. Is there a new airport in Funchal then? Beats me how I missed that!
‘Madeira Lost 380 Flights In 5 Months – Madeira Airport registered 68,385 less passengers between January and May’. That’s a reduction of over 355 in the number of flights coming from outside of Portugal. The national sector is holding up quite well, especially with increased demand for Madeira from Portugal, and the additional flights from Easyjet to add to those from TAP and SATA, resulting in a 10.8% increase in domestic passengers between January and May (407,445 to 450,455). the Diário concludes that the loss of passengers represents around 40,000 hotel guests, compared with the same period in 2008. Porto Santo Island has it even worse, with a fall of 58.3% in foreign visitors movements by air (down from 7,327 to 3,052) over the same 5 months.
Bit of a thin newspaper today, maybe to do with the public holiday today, so the odd few news stories left I will take over to tomorrow.