JPP leader says the party will enter a new political era

“ Vin that a new era”, says in a statement, explaining that the objective is to consolidate the party as a second political force in the Autonomous Region of Madeira and also as a “national force of regional domination”.

Elvio Sousa stresses that, despite electoral growth, the JPP still has “a long way to go”, especially at the level of preparation, training, subject-taking, initiative capacity and strengthening of human resources.

“The party is about to conclude its organization as a national force of regional domination,” he said, noting that the process requires “firm hand, command, initiative capacity, vision of the future, more collective and less individualism.”.

The JPP was born as a citizens' movement in 2009, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, in the eastern part of Madeira, the municipality that leads since 2013 with an absolute majority, and became a political party in 2015, when it elected five deputies to the regional parliament.

Currently, it is the largest party of the Madeiran opposition, with 11 deputies in the Legislative Assembly, composed of a total of 47.

In May 2025, he became the first party based outside Lisbon to elect a deputy to the Portuguese parliament, Filipe Sousa.

The leader of the JPP now wants the party to assume an “increasingly purposeful position”, by building a government program and an agenda for autonomy, surpassing the “mere criticism” to the PSD majority, which has ruled the region since 1976 and currently in coalition with the CDS-PP.

Elvio Sousa indicated that, in addition to the proposal for a constitutional review already presented in the Regional Legislative Assembly, the JPP will move forward with other “structural matters”, namely the creation of its own tax regime in the region, a program to reduce public expenditure, a plan for agriculture and silvopastorícia and a project to extend the insularity grant to the private sector.

“ To be opposed is not only to criticize the deciduous majority that governs, but also to present intelligible solutions”, he maintains, advancing that the party should now demonstrate “trust of government, capacity and rigor”.