Politics: Political Autonomy

Politics[edit]
Main article: Politics of Madeira

Political Autonomy[edit]
Due to its distinct geography, economy, social and cultural situation, as well as the
historical autonomic aspirations of the Madeiran island population, the Autonomous
Regions of Madeira was established in 1976.[57] Although it is a politico-administrative
autonomic region the Portuguese constitution specifies both a regional and national
connection, obliging their administrations to maintain democratic principles and
promote regional interests, while still reinforcing national unity.
As defined by the Portuguese constitution and other laws, Madeira possesses its
own political and administrative statute and has its own government. The branches of
Government are the Regional Government and the Legislative Assembly, the later
being elected by universal suffrage, using the D'Hondt method of proportional
representation.
The president of the Regional Government is appointed by the Representative of the
Republic according to the results of the election to the legislative assemblies.
The sovereignty of the Portuguese Republic was represented in Madeira by the
Minister of the Republic, proposed by the Government of the Republic and appointed
by the President of the Republic. However, after the sixth amendment to
the Portuguese Constitution was passed in 2006, the Minister of the Republic was
replaced by a less-powerful Representative of the Republic who is appointed by the
President, after listening to the Government, but otherwise it is a presidential
prerogative. The other tasks of Representative of the Republic are to sign and order
the publication of regional legislative decrees and regional regulatory decrees or to
exercise the right of veto over regional laws, should these laws be unconstitutional.
Status within the European Union[edit]
Map of the European Union in the world, with overseas countries and territories (OCT) and outermost
regions (OMR) for which Madeira is included
Madeira is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the European Union, meaning that

due to its geographical situation, it is entitled to derogation from some EU policies
despite being part of the European Union.
According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both primary and
secondary European Union law applies automatically to Madeira, with possible
derogations to take account of its "structural social and economic situation (...) which
is compounded by their remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and
climate, economic dependence on a few products, the permanence and combination
of which severely restrain their development".[58] An example of such derogation is
seen in the approval of the International Business Centre of Madeira and other state
aid policies to help the rum industry.
It forms part of the European Union customs area, the Schengen Area and
the European Union Value Added Tax Area.
Administrative divisions[edit]
Administratively, Madeira (with a population of 267,302 inhabitants in 2011 [59]) and
covering an area of 768.0 km2 (296.5 sq mi) is organised into eleven municipalities:[60]
Population
Municipality Area Main settlement Parishes
(2011)[59]
Funchal[61] 111,892 75.7 km2 (29.2 sq mi) Funchal 10
Santa Cruz[62] 43,005 68.0 km2 (26.3 sq mi) Santa Cruz 5
Câmara de Lobos 35,666 52.6 km2 (20.3 sq mi) Câmara de Lobos 5
Machico 21,828 67.6 km2 (26.1 sq mi) Machico 5
Ribeira Brava 13,375 64.9 km2 (25.1 sq mi) Ribeira Brava 4
Calheta 11,521 110.3 km2 (42.6 sq mi) Calheta 8
Ponta do Sol 8,862 46.8 km2 (18.1 sq mi) Ponta do Sol 3
Santana 7,719 93.1 km2 (35.9 sq mi) Santana 6
São Vicente 5,723 80.8 km2 (31.2 sq mi) São Vicente 3
Porto Santo[63] 5,483 42.4 km2 (16.4 sq mi) Vila Baleira 1
Porto Moniz 2,711 82.6 km2 (31.9 sq mi) Porto Moniz 4

Partial view of the capital as seen from the mountains above it
Funchal[edit]
Main article: Funchal
Funchal is the capital and principal city of the Autonomous Region of Madeira,
located along the southern coast of the island of Madeira. It is a modern city, located
within a natural geological "amphitheatre" composed of vulcanological structure and
fluvial hydrological forces. Beginning at the harbour (Porto de Funchal), the
neighbourhoods and streets rise almost 1,200 metres (3,900 ft), along gentle slopes
that helped to provide a natural shelter to the early settlers.
Population[edit]
Demographics[edit]
See also: Demographics of Madeira
The island was settled by Portuguese people, especially farmers from
the Minho region,[64] meaning that Madeirans (Portuguese: Madeirenses), as they are
called, are ethnically Portuguese, though they have developed their own distinct
regional identity and cultural traits.
The region has a total population of just under 270,000, the majority of whom live on
the main island of Madeira where the population density is 337/km2; meanwhile only
around 5,000 live on the Porto Santo island where the population density is 112/km2.
About 247,000 (96%) of the population are Catholic and Funchal is the location of
the Catholic cathedral.[65]
Diaspora[edit]
Main article: Portuguese diaspora
Madeirans migrated to the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, British Guiana, St.
Vincent and Trinidad.[66][67] Madeiran immigrants in North America mostly clustered in
the New England and mid-Atlantic states, Toronto, Northern California, and Hawaii.
The city of New Bedford is especially rich in Madeirans, hosting the Museum of
Madeira Heritage, as well as the annual Madeiran and Luso-American celebration,
the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the world's largest celebration of Madeiran
heritage, regularly drawing crowds of tens of thousands to the city's Madeira Field.
Many Portuguese immigrants in Hawaii were Madeiran
In 1846, when a famine struck Madeira over 6,000 of the inhabitants migrated
to British Guiana. In 1891 they numbered 4.3% of the population. [68] In 1902
in Honolulu, Hawaii there were 5,000 Portuguese people, mostly Madeirans. In 1910
this grew to 21,000.[69]
1849 saw an emigration of Protestant religious exiles from Madeira to the United
States, by way of Trinidad and other locations in the West Indies. Most of them
settled in Illinois[70] with financial and physical aid of the American Protestant Society,
headquartered in New York City. In the late 1830s the Reverend Robert Reid Kalley,
from Scotland, a Presbyterian minister as well as a physician, made a stop at
Funchal, Madeira on his way to a mission in China, with his wife, so that she could
recover from an illness. The Rev. Kalley and his wife stayed on Madeira where he
began preaching the Protestant gospel and converting islanders from Catholicism.
[71]
Eventually, the Rev. Kalley was arrested for his religious conversion activities and
imprisoned. Another missionary from Scotland, William Hepburn Hewitson, took on
Protestant ministerial activities in Madeira. By 1846, about 1,000 Protestant
Madeirenses, who were discriminated against and the subjects of mob violence
because of their religious conversions, chose to immigrate to Trinidad and other
locations in the West Indies in answer for a call for sugar plantation workers. [72] The
Madeirenses exiles did not fare well in the West Indies. The tropical climate was
unfamiliar and they found themselves in serious economic difficulties. By 1848, the
American Protestant Society raised money and sent the Rev. Manuel J. Gonsalves, a
Baptist minister and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Madeira, to work with the Rev.
Arsénio da Silva, who had emigrated with the exiles from Madeira, to arrange to
resettle those who wanted to come to the United States. The Rev. da Silva died in
early 1849. Later in 1849, the Rev. Gonsalves was then charged with escorting the
exiles from Trinidad to be settled in Sangamon and Morgan counties in Illinois on
land purchased with funds raised by the American Protestant Society. Accounts state
that anywhere from 700 to 1,000 exiles came to the United States at this time. [73][74]
There are several large Madeiran communities around the world, such as the number
in the UK, including Jersey,[75] the Portuguese British community mostly made up of
Madeirans celebrate Madeira Day.
Immigration[edit]
Madeira is part of the Schengen Area.
The Venezuelan (14.4%), British (14.2%), Brazilian (12.1%) and German (7.0%)
nationalities constituted the largest foreign communities residing in the Autonomous
Region of Madeira in 2017. The Venezuelan community showed a sharp increase
(38.0%) in 2017 after migration Socioeconomic crisis in Venezuela. In terms of
geographical distribution, it is in Funchal that the foreign population mainly
concentrates (59.2% of the total of the Region), followed by Santa Cruz (13.8%),
Calheta (7.3%) and Porto Santo (4.0%). The foreign population with resident status
in the Autonomous Region of Madeira totaled 6,720 (up by 10.0% from 2016),
distributed between residence permits (6,692) and long-stay visas (28). [76]

Politics: Political Autonomy

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Politics: Political Autonomy

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Politics[edit]

Main article: Politics of Madeira

Madeira is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the European Union, meaning that

Funchal[61] 111,892 75.7 km2 (29.2 sq mi) Funchal 10

Santa Cruz[62] 43,005 68.0 km2 (26.3 sq mi) Santa Cruz 5

Câmara de Lobos 35,666 52.6 km2 (20.3 sq mi) Câmara de Lobos 5

Machico 21,828 67.6 km2 (26.1 sq mi) Machico 5

Ribeira Brava 13,375 64.9 km2 (25.1 sq mi) Ribeira Brava 4

Calheta 11,521 110.3 km2 (42.6 sq mi) Calheta 8

Ponta do Sol 8,862 46.8 km2 (18.1 sq mi) Ponta do Sol 3

Santana 7,719 93.1 km2 (35.9 sq mi) Santana 6

São Vicente 5,723 80.8 km2 (31.2 sq mi) São Vicente 3

Porto Santo[63] 5,483 42.4 km2 (16.4 sq mi) Vila Baleira 1

Porto Moniz 2,711 82.6 km2 (31.9 sq mi) Porto Moniz 4

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