MAVERICK REGIONAL Governor of Madeira, Alberto João Jardim, has threatened to break-away from Portugal and set up a republic.
The man dubbed as a loose cannon, who has run the island as a virtual king since the late 1970s, once again made his threat against what he called “the colonial government of Lisbon” during a long speech in the Madeira regional parliament which was debating the Portuguese State Budget for 2009.
“Either the Portuguese Republic respects Madeira or faces the consequences,” he said in his monologue attack against Lisbon.
“We have no separatist sentiments but equally we are not here to be subjected to incompetent (Portuguese) Republican laws,” he said. “They are not capable of understanding what I’m trying to say. They haven’t got a clue about anything.”
Without saying anything new, the President of Madeira once again said that he intended to transform the next national legislative elections into a plebiscite on his revised constitutional project and that the Madeira people would have to make up their mind “where their bread was buttered”.
“The PS (government of José Socrates) has got no values, are dangerous people, and is an organisation of conquest and power for power’s sake,” he blasted.
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