The legislative elections of May 26, the second early elections in the history of the autonomous regime, will take place eight months after the most recent regional elections, on September 24, 2023, after the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, dissolved the Madeiran parliament.

The decision of the Head of State came in the wake of the political crisis triggered in January, when the leader of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP), the social democrat Miguel Albuquerque, was indicted in a process in which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

Subsequently, Miguel Albuquerque resigned, which led to the fall of the executive, which has been under management since the beginning of February.

The Court of Funchal has already issued the order to admit 14 candidacies - 13 from parties running independently and one from a coalition of two parties.

The draw for the order on the ballot paper placed the Alternativa Democrática Nacional (ADN) in first place, followed by the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), Partido Socialista (PS), Livre (L), Iniciativa Liberal (IL), Reagir, Incluir, Reciclar (RIR), CDU -- Coligação Democrática Unitária (PCP/PEV), Chega (CH), CDS -- Partido Popular (CDS-PP), Partido da Terra (MPT), Partido Social-Democrata (PPD/PSD), Pessoas-Animais-Natureza (PAN), Partido Trabalhista Português (PTP) and Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP).

In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the social democrats managed to obtain an absolute majority from 1976 until 2015.

The situation changed in 2019, when the party elected 21 deputies, out of a total of 47 that make up the regional parliament, and formed a coalition government with the CDS-PP (three deputies).

In that electoral act, in which 16 lists with a single party and also a coalition competed, the Partido Socialista obtained the best result ever by electing 19 deputies. The JPP obtained three mandates and the PCP one.

In the legislative elections of September 24, 2023, the PSD and the CDS-PP ran in coalition, but were one deputy short of an absolute majority, having elected 20 social democratic representatives and three centrists.

This situation led to the signing of a parliamentary incidence agreement between the social democrats and the sole PAN deputy, Mónica Freitas, which thus made viable the third consecutive executive led by Miguel Albuquerque.

In the last electoral act for the composition of the parliament of Madeira (legislature 2023-2027), 11 single parties and two coalitions of two parties each competed, and representatives of nine forces were elected: PSD (20 deputies), PS (11), JPP (five), Chega (four), CDS-PP (three), PCP (one), IL (one), PAN (one) and BE (one).

Chega and Iniciativa Liberal were newcomers to the regional parliament, while PAN and BE marked their return to legislative activity.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira has had only three Presidents of the Regional Government elected after the revolution of April 25, 1974, the first being Jaime Ornelas Camacho (1976-1978), replaced in the middle of his term by Alberto João Jardim.

Alberto João Jardim then presided over nine regional executives and, under his leadership, the PSD obtained an absolute majority in the legislative elections of 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2011.

The 2007 elections were the first early elections (the legislature ended in 2008), because Jardim resigned in protest against the Regional Finance Law and, simultaneously, guaranteed his re-candidacy, winning again with an absolute majority, a scenario that was repeated in 2011.

In January 2015, Alberto João Jardim resigned again from the position of President of the Regional Government, following the election of the new leader of the PSD/Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, in the second round of internal elections held on December 29, 2014.

In the 2015 legislative elections, the PSD obtained 24 deputies, holding the absolute majority by one, and in the following elections, in 2019, it lost the absolute majority in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira for the first time.

Miguel Albuquerque, who has led the Madeiran executive since 2015, broke the coalition agreement with the CDS-PP and is running for the May 26 elections as head of the PSD list, after being re-elected president of the party in an internal dispute in March, which he won with 2,243 votes (54.3%), against 1,856 (44.5%) of the list headed by Manuel António Correia, in a universe of 4,388 militants eligible to vote.

The composition of the Madeiran parliament has undergone several changes since 1976, although the presence of representatives from the PSD, PS and CDS-PP has been constant.

Over the course of 13 legislatures, the UDP, APU (PCP/MDP/PEV coalition), Partido da Solidariedade Nacional, CDU, BE, MPT, Nova Democracia, PAN, PTP, PCP and JPP have also been represented in parliament.

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