BE regional coordinator heads the list in Funchal

The regional coordinator of the Left Bloc (BE) in Madeira, Dina Letra, is the Left Bloc's candidate for the Funchal City Council in the local elections to be held on October 12, the party announced this Wednesday.

In the information released, BE Madeira states that the head of the list was a councilor with a portfolio in the municipality of Funchal when it was managed by the Confiança coalition, led by the PS, nominated by the Left Bloc, and mayor in the executive of the parish of Santa Maria Maior.

"He is someone who knows Funchal City Council inside out and the problems that the people of Funchal face every day," the statement reads.

Born in 1974, Dina Letra has been coordinator of BE Madeira since 2021, with a degree in Modern Languages ​​and Literature and a position as a management secretary at a wine company.

She has extensive experience in electoral matters, having been a candidate on the party's lists in local, regional and national elections since 2004 and on the lists of the coalition led by the PS in Funchal in 2013 and 2017.

The candidate for the Municipal Assembly is Higino Vasconcelos, mayor of the Left Bloc in São Martinho, who also nominates the Left Bloc.

"This candidacy is a loyal commitment to the people of Funchal, a commitment to speak the truth (...), to do things differently, because different solutions are needed for problems that have been dragging on for too long and are getting worse every day, (...) and a new confidence in the future of the city of Funchal, which has been abandoned for the last four years, led by a PSD-CDS coalition that has always left the people of Funchal behind", highlights the island's Left Bloc.

With the "ambition to do things differently," the candidacy outlines five priority areas for the city: housing, which it considers "the greatest emergency," mobility, accessibility, and land use planning, as a "great challenge," greater fiscal and social justice, as an "imperative," environmental sustainability, animal welfare and climate change, and culture and citizenship to "preserve traditions and democratize access."

In the municipality of Funchal, eight candidates have been announced so far. In addition to Dina Letra (BE), the candidates Jorge Carvalho (PSD/CDS-PP), Fátima Aveiro (JPP), Rui Caetano (PS), Luís Filipe Santos (Chega), Sara Jardim (IL), Mónica Freitas (PAN) and Ricardo Lume (CDU-PCP/PEV) are also known.

The Funchal executive branch has 11 members – six from the Funchal Sempre à Frente (PSD/CDS) coalition and five from Confiança (PS/BE/PAN/MPT/PDR). The Municipal Assembly is made up of 43 members – 17 from the PSD/CDS-PP coalition, 14 from Confiança, one from the CDU, and one from Chega.

In the last local elections, held on September 26, 2021, the PSD/CDS-PP coalition won three of Madeira's 11 municipalities: Funchal, São Vicente, and Porto Santo. The PSD, alone, won in Câmara de Lobos and Calheta, while the CDS-PP won alone in Santana.

The Socialist Party (PS) won a majority in Porto Moniz, Machico, and Ponta do Sol, while the JPP (July 2019) retained the presidency in Santa Cruz. In Ribeira Brava, the Ribeira Brava First movement won, with a list supported by social democrats and centrists.