The Secretary of the Presidency said this morning that the Government of the Azores "has a clear conscience regarding its relation with local power both institutionally and politically."

André Bradford spoke during a debate raised by the political declaration made by the parliamentary leader of PS/Açores, thus responding to the parliamentary leader of PSD/Açores who "said more than one time that if PSD was in power, local authorities would be treated with more respect."

The government official also said that this statement does not seem "to be acceptable from a party led by a mayor who spends her last months on all islands but the island where she was elected; a mayor that travels and carries out an election campaign across the Azores, but who has not developed a visible and meaningful project for Ponta Delgada for months; a mayor who does speak to her for months, but now comes to talk about the respect for local authorities."

André Bradford also said that the leader of PSD/Açores can only be a "fan of Passos Coelho," because otherwise we would not understand her "intention to conduct a comprehensive social policy in the Region while defending the need to cut social support." Furthermore, it is also difficult to understand her intention "to create proximity schools in the Region and then saying that closing schools in Mainland Portugal is patriotic" or even her "accusations towards the Regional Government regarding unemployment levels in the Region while stating that national unemployment is patriotic."

Hence, the Secretary of the Presidency said that "one cannot simultaneously defend what is being done in Mainland Portugal, particularly the cuts in support and subsidies, and advocate the expansion of the social support system in the Region" as this is "the purest form of contradiction." This attitude demonstrates that "while defending a series of measures to cut expenditure nationwide, she  proposes a set of measures in the Region that would inevitably increase costs."