The Municipal Assembly of Santa Cruz approved, this Monday, a protest vote against what it considers interference by the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira within the action of local government.
The document includes the “vehement protest” against the alleged overflow of the competences of the Regional Legislative Assembly by intervening in matters of local government, as well as the condemnation of its use as a “political and media circus” to attack local bodies and the opposition.
The Municipal Assembly also reaffirms “the autonomy of local government, constitutionally enshrined” and the exclusive competence of this body in the supervision of the municipal executive, repudiating what it considers to be an “implicit certificate of incompetence” addressed to the body and its members.
The vote will be communicated to the Association of Municipalities of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (AMRAM), the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), and the National Association of Municipal Assemblies (ANAM).
The initiative was based on a vote put forward by the JPP, highlighting recent incidents in the parliamentary committee and remarks made in the Regional Legislative Assembly, which they believe represent “a clear and unacceptable overstepping of this body’s authority.”
The municipal group argues that the Regional Legislative Assembly should be limited to supervising the Regional Government, “and not, under any circumstances, to be used to replace local government bodies, namely the Municipal Assembly of Santa Cruz.”
The JPP also understands that the attempt to subject a local body to direct scrutiny by a regional legislative assembly “constitutes a frontal violation of the principle of autonomy of local government and a serious distortion of the institutional balance between levels of power”.
In the same position, the party accuses the Regional Legislative Assembly of having become a “political and media circus, aimed at exposing, wearing down and ridiculing the opposition in general and the Mayor of Santa Cruz in particular.”
The protest vote sees this action as “taking on particularly serious dimensions” because it comes from what it calls the “House of Madeiran Democracy,” accusing it of political interference and undermining legitimacy.
The JPP also states that the stance in question diminishes and devalues the role of the Municipal Assembly of Santa Cruz and its members, stressing that the autonomy of local government is not a decorative formality, but a structuring principle of the democratic regime.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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