IL/Azores agrees to vote against Small investment budget

O leader of IL/Açores, Nuno Barata, today admitted to vote against the Plan and Budget of the region for 2027, for considering that the investment is “minor” and the documents do not present news regarding the previous ones.

“ We will probably still have one more meeting of the regional bodies of IL, [...] but in the context of what has been the analysis of the latest budgets, I do not think IL members will vote in favour”, said Nuno Barata.

According to the regional leader and only deputy of the IL, who in 2025 also voted against the Plan and Budget for this year, the responsibility for approving the documents “is much more of the PS and the Enough, which have already taken votes of abstention”.

“They [PS and Arrive] agree almost always with this and are conniving with such budgets. This is what they also know how to do, state budgets, with the State in the spotlight, and [with] the State to help everything and everyone and we do not believe it,” said the politician in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, at the end of a meeting of the local coordination group of IL that served to analyze the proposals for Regional Government Plan and Budget (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) for 2027.

According to Nuno Barata, from the analysis of the documents, the party concluded, at the level of the Investment Plan for next year, that, despite the warnings, “it continues to have medium-term options that are, at the bottom, of current expenditure. And that doesn’t make any sense.”.

He also said that the investment is “almost small” and the documents are “no news” compared to the previous ones.

In his opinion, the Regional Government led by Social Democrat José Manuel Bolieiro, “is not interested in halting the spiral of indebtedness”, so the party agrees to vote against the proposal.

After mentioning that “there is always room for dialogue”, he stressed that if the executive, since taking office in 2020, had “heard IL more and executed more” his suggestions for governance, “probably the region would be better than it is now”.

Nuno Barata reaffirmed that the current Regional Government is “bad” and is “the worst government in the history of autonomy, because it does not dialogue, because it does not know what it is doing and, mainly, because it leaves a legacy of debt for the future”.

The regional coordinator of the Azorean IL, who spoke after the hearings of the members of the Regional Government, held on Thursday and Friday in the specialized committees of the Legislative Assembly, stressed that the proposed budget for 2027 points to 1,840 million euros of own revenue and 2,103 million of actual expenditure.

“ This means that we are facing a budget that does not reverse the course of the increase in expenditure, debt and debt and that already points to a budget deficit of more than EUR 263 million next year,” he added.

He also said that in order to cope with the increase in current expenditure and the increase in debt, the region plans to “debt in EUR 663.5 million”, which represents “more than 26% of the region’s own revenue”.

The pre-proposal for the Azores Plan for 2027 provides for an overall investment of EUR 1,057 million, EUR 650 million of the Regional Government’s “direct responsibility”.

The discussion and vote on the Plan and Budget of the Azores for 2027 will take place this month at the Regional Legislative Assembly, in the city of Horta, on Faial Island.