“Socialists are the only alternative”
Today’s JM headline reveals that the number of end-of-life vehicles scrapped in Madeira has been increasing, with particular incidence in the last four years. According to Valorcar, which brings together six companies in the Region licensed to dismantle vehicles, last year alone 1,672 cars were scrapped.
This would perhaps tend to confirm that Madeirans prefer to buy new cars, with the second-hand market being relatively subdued, and the number of vehicles being run into the ground, where there is no choice but to scrap them, remains at a high number.
Car scrappage rates are hardly the most rivetting subject for a Sunday morning, but at the moment I’m afraid there is little choice – it is either that, football (bad), the weather (bad) or politics:
“Socialists are the only alternative”
The head of the PS (Socialist party) list for the elections in Madeira a week today, Sérgio Gonçalves, said yesterday that it is essential to change the region to “give the future back to the new generations” and stated that the policies of the existing coalition have changed living conditions for the worse.
“In fact, it is almost impossible to get worse than we are today. And if we are worse off today, it is because Madeira already changed for the worse in 2015, when Miguel Albuquerque [elected president of the Regional Government that year] promised everything and delivered little or nothing,” he said.
Sérgio Gonçalves reacted in this way to the leader of the executive, who in these elections is running for a third term, now at the head of the Somos Madeira coalition, who said at a rally that “no one changes for the worse”, referring to the socialist candidacy for the September 24 elections.
“We have to change to give a future back to the new generations, to give a future back to Madeirans”, said the head of the PS list, at a dinner/rally in Santana, on the north coast of the island, in which around 100 people participated.
“We have in the Socialist Party the necessary solutions for this change, guaranteeing more income for Madeirans by lowering taxes”, he reinforced.
Sérgio Gonçalves, also a regional deputy and leader of the PS/Madeira, highlighted that on election day the choice “is easy”, before adding: “A vote for the PS is a vote for the alternative, it is a vote for change, it is the only vote that changes Madeira.”
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Yes, would definitely prefer to have this than the given alternatives! 🤣
Thank you.
It seems Keir Starmer is bent on allowing EU citizens resident in the UK the right to vote in General Elections. I have no time for the present Tory Party but unless the EU resident is prepared to take on UK citizenship I see no reason why he/she should be allowed this privilege. Likewise the present Madeiran leader was chosen by the local electorate, as it should be. While I have no problem with peoples political opinions as to who they would support and prefer to run the country if they were Madeiran nationals, I feel unless they are prepared to give up their own national identity and take Madeiran citizenship then a vote should be denied them.
Or in one line, it’s down to the locals if, as it seems likely they want this man to rule for a third term.
The alternatives I was referring to were: “football (bad), the weather (bad) or politics.”
The prices for second hand cars on Madeira has always been ridiculously high compared with the UK and this must contribute to the situation where it’s hardly worth buying a second hand car that is say five years old if it’s only a few thousand euros cheaper than a brand new one with a two or three year warrantee on it. Hence the roads are full either of cars no more than a few years old or cars that are fifteen to twenty years old!
Excellent news less cars in the Madeira roads and less in the countryside and mountains . The solution is a bus that only the serve the mountains that should collect the tourist in the different areas of the island to avoid the excess of cars in countryside and mountains .
Not really, because for every vehicle being scrapped a new one is being purchased, in fact just in the first 4 months of this year some 1500 new vehicles were purchased on Madeira and the annual total is around 3000. The scrapped figure covered a much longer period.
As a long term driver on this island I can confidently say that there are ever more vehicles on the road, more accidents and appalling driving standards
Agree with you . It was a wishing to have less cars . I was in Madeira in August and there is far to many cars in the road and driving like crazy and parking over the place . And the same apply in mainland in Portugal they park over the place and drive like crazy.