PS/Azores: Regional Government is “gaining money” with fuels

O leader of the PS/Azores, Francisco César, today reiterated that the Regional Government is “gaining money” with rising fuel prices and argued that additional revenue should be “returned” to people to face economic difficulties.

Acting in the opening of the parliamentary days of the party structure, in Vila Franca do Campo, on the island of São Miguel, the socialist leader stressed that fuels “has dropped at international level more than 20%”.

In this context, he argued that “it is time, even before the budget [for 2027], for the Regional Government to comply with what was said anticipating the fall in fuel prices for citizens and businesses to have lower costs”.

Francisco César considered that “when the cost of living squeezes the Government of the Azores cannot be limited to recognizing the problem”, having to “use the instruments at its disposal”, such as the decline of fuels.

César recommended, on the other hand, that the executive (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) meet with the social partners with a view to establishing a “regime agreement” that allows, “in the future, not only to increase the minimum wage”, as well as a “average-term agreement to value the average salary in the Azores so that families have the ability to respond to the difficulties they are going through”.

In housing, the leader considered that “the signal the Budget gives is not good” and claimed “more support programs for public construction, rent, more partnerships with private companies in the context of housing cooperatives”.

The Socialist also defended housing at controlled costs, as well as public-private partnerships that allow the region to make real estate or land available.

In the area of health, which has “less than 46% investment” in the Regional Budget next year, the PS reiterated that the management of the Regional Health Service “makes much more sense to be made in a centralized way, but with the clinical directions in each of the islands”.

The Socialist also claimed that the Government of the Republic fulfills its obligations to the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, following the fire in that unit in 2024.

The price of butane gas in the Azores has increased by 39.1 cents per kilo this month, while diesel has risen by 5.5 cents per litre and gasoline by one cent per litre.

This was the third consecutive rise in fuel prices in the Azores, although the Azorean executive announced, in October, a drop in the Petroleum Tax (ISP).

In September and October, gasoline increased by 10.5 cents per litre and diesel fuel by 21.7 cents per litre.

By the beginning of the year, fuel prices had shown marked rises, decreasing between June and August.

The rise in fuel prices takes place in a context of strong geopolitical tension in the Middle East and after the US attack on Iran, with oil prices pressed by the closure of the Ormuz Strait and the volatility of international markets.