Madeira News Blog

(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.

(6th June). ‘Crimes Using Weapons With Tougher Sentences – New Law on Weapons enters into force today’. The new gun laws, which toughen the punishment for crimes using guns, comes into force today, according to the Ministry for Internal Administration. The law was passed in Parliament on 19th March with the votes of the PS (socialists), the abstention of the PSD, and the CDS-PP, the PCP, BE and ‘The Greens’ voted against. By law, those who sell or transfer firearms without permission, can be punished with a sentence of two to ten years in prison. I thought it odd that the green party voted against, as firing a gun causes pollution, but knowing that lot they probably thought the new law wasn’t tough enough.

(3rd June). The Portuguese population living in Spain increased 10.4% last year. There are now 140,424 Portuguese living there. Other nationalities moving to Spain only registered a 6.3% increase.

(2nd June). The minister of health in Portugal has admitted that there is a second case of ‘Gripe A’ in Portugal, brought in by a Portuguese citizen that returned from the USA. The 33 year old is under observation in Porto hospital.

(6th June). ‘SB Airlines Returns – Venezuela’s airline resumes direct flights between Caracas and Madeira’. The first flight was yesterday, with the landing at 8am and take off at 11am. Carola Torquemada, the company’s commercial director for Europe, told the Diário that SB Airlines went through a major restructure, both in terms of its shareholder structure, and at an operational level, and now presents itself as the largest airline in Venezuela in the international market. Initially there is just one weekly flight, but if there is sufficient demand then SBA will consider a second weekly round trip.

(30th May). ‘There Are Gaps In The Tobacco Law – Portuguese Society of Pneumology launches an awareness campaign on the harmful effects of cigarettes’. To mark world ‘no smoking day’ the organisation is launching a campaign which will hit Madeira from Monday. The aim is to highlight the harmful effects of smoking, exposure to passive smoking, and gaps in the law which came in last year. In terms of the gaps in the law, a spokesperson says that there is lack of enforcement. In order to put people off smoking, aggressive images should be printed in cigarette packets, something that is not permitted on packs sold in Portugal. Also prices should be increased, and smokers should be given improved access to ‘giving-up’ consultations.

‘Neighbourhood Policing Comes To The Zones Of Sé And Monte – The Police also announce that night time police checks in Funchal are to be increased’. It has already happened in Santo António and São Martinho, and the PSP commissioner said that the reinforcements "will work exclusively patrolling on foot" thus allowing permanent contact with the local population. He also said that new measures would continue to be developed to prevent deviant behaviour, including prostitution. Operation ‘STOP’ will also be intensified in Funchal, particularly to target drink drivers.

(29th May). ‘Madeira Consuming Tuna From The Azores – The Azores are having a really good month for tuna fishing, but the problem is they eat little tuna’. A harvest "extraordinaire" of bigeye (species of tuna) is forcing the Azorean fishermen to market their fish in Madeira, where this species is "more valued" when sold fresh, and there are more guarantees of demand. "In the first fifteen days of May there were so many fish, and no capacity to absorb them in the Azores market, so our boats went off to Madeira, where the fish is more valuable", said Hélio Neves, President of the Producers Association for Tuna and Similar Things of the Azores (APASA). The catch has been high, "close to 200 tonnes this month alone" on the same boats that throughout the season last year, captured only between 180 and 220 tonnes. "In times of exceptionally high catches in a short space of time there is a difficulty in disposing of fresh tuna for sale in (the Azores), so the alternative is to go to Madeira" said the president. Hmmm! It’s probably a bit late for my somewhat ecologically friendly suggestion … just fish for what you need and leave the rest of the tuna to breed further, and then next season you will have a bumper harvest once again (or is someone going to tell me that tuna migrate to other waters?)