Tourism Secretary apologizes

The Secretary of Tourism, Environment and Culture of Madeira presented an apology this Thursday to the president of the Legislative Assembly of the autonomous region for the language he used in the debate on the island's budget.

“I hereby communicate, in my capacity as president of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, the honorable representative of all the deputies elected in this region, my regret and my apologies, in the person of Your Excellency, for what happened during the discussion of the Regional Budget/2025, last Tuesday”, wrote the minister in the letter sent to the head of the island's parliament, Rubina Leal.

At issue are expressions considered to be low language used by the regional secretary for Tourism, Environment and Culture on Tuesday, in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, during the debate on the specialty of the Budget and Investment Plan of the Madeiran government for 2025.

Among other phrases considered inappropriate in a parliamentary debate, Eduardo Jesus criticized the questions asked by PS deputy Sílvia Silva, to whom he referred with the word “gaja”.

In addition to this, which was the least serious, the regional secretary called female deputies “stupid” and used other expressions that are less appropriate to use in a parliamentary debate.

The situation was criticized by all opposition parties who considered the expressions used an “insult”, “unspeakable” and “regrettable”, arguing that an apology should be presented.

“I would like to point out that under no circumstances did I intend to offend the ladies and gentlemen deputies or the institution and that my remarks resulted from the tension of the enthusiastic discussion that normally takes place in the parliamentary environment”, says Eduardo Jesus in the same letter sent to Rubina Leal.

During the expressions used by the regional secretary, the PS/Madeira, one of the parties whose deputies were the target of Eduardo Jesus' insults, announced the presentation of a formal protest to the president of the Madeiran parliament.

The parliamentary leader of the JPP, Élvio Jesus, considered that the words used were “unqualifiable” and maintained that “there must be political consequences” of the episode.

In turn, the deputies of Chega and IL defended the presentation of an apology for the “extremely unfortunate behavior” of the regional secretary.