The proposal for the creation of this new public holiday was unanimously approved during the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira on November 27 and sent for consideration by the representative of the Republic for the region, Ireneu Barreto, on the 3 December.
After the promulgation, the advisory judge sent a letter to the island’s parliament in which he recalled that “this is not the first time that the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region has created a regional public holiday.”
Ireneu Barreto mentions that “since 1979, July 1 has been the regional day” and that “since the end of 2002, December 26 has also been a regional holiday.”
Autonomy Day aims to mark the constitutional consecration of regional autonomy.
On July 1, the region celebrates the date that evokes the discovery of the island of Madeira and “on April 2, it is about highlighting and marking the achievement of autonomy, as an aspiration of several centuries of the Madeiran people, finally translated into the Portuguese constitutional text, highlighting its importance for the profound political, economic, social, cultural and sporting transformations of Madeira and Porto Santo”, declared the Commission for the celebrations of 50 years of autonomy.
The commission’s proposal, approved in plenary session, was signed by all parties represented in parliament.
The date was chosen because it was during the plenary session of April 2, 1976 that the new Constitution of the Portuguese Republic was approved and decreed, establishing for the first time that “the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira constitute regions autonomous entities with political-administrative status and self-management bodies.
Swiss
