One of the proposals in the Government Programme, delivered at the end of the week to the Legislative Assembly and to which Lusa had access to reads, "it is a pilot project for a four-day week/telework (also extendable to the private sector), always in common agreement with the worker and the employer, to better reconcile their professional life with their personal and family life”.

The Azorean executive also wants to “reduce the number of political and appointment positions” and to “reduce operating costs with consumables, disposables, electricity, water, among other service expenses public by 2.5% per year”.

“Public administration must be measured in its spending and focused on providing services to citizens, in accordance with high levels of quality”, reads the document.

The Government Programme maintains demands from public servants, which were included in the region's Budget for 2024, that failed in November, such as “the reduction from 10 to six in the number of points necessary for career progression and the end of assessment quotas” or the extension of supplementary remuneration for salaries up to 1,750 euros.

The executive intends to “continue the control and reduction of regional public debt by reference to GDP [Gross Domestic Product]” and resort to debt only “when absolutely necessary for the full use of community funds”.

“We do not intend to leave these costs in the regional budgets of current and future Azorean generations. To achieve this, it is essential not to spend more than you have and to establish priorities, so as not to delay payments”, the document reads.

The executive led by José Manuel Bolieiro emphasises that the regional public business sector, restructured in the last term, “cannot be the vehicle for the Regional Government's debt, dangerously putting the balance of Azorean public finances at risk”.

It also highlights the intention of “fulfilling the obligation imposed by the European Commission to privatize Azores Airlines by 2025”.

The executive wishes to implement the Partnership Agreement signed in the previous term with UGT, the Agricultural Federation and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Azores, to “maintain or increase the level of execution of European funds”, to “speed up the implementation of the system of incentives” and to “maintain and improve the execution of the PRR [Recovery and Resilience Plan]”.

The Government Programme foresees the “reduction of the average payment period for Public Administration”, the operationalisation of the statute of tax benefits in terms of Corporate Income Tax (IRC) and the creation of a “capitalisation system appropriate to the fabric of regional business”.

The executive states that he wants to “ensure that the private sector has stable conditions to invest” and to “promote the competitiveness of Azorean companies, reducing bureaucracy”.

It also intends to give “new powers and more conditions to the Corruption Prevention and Transparency Office, making it transversal to all departments of the Regional Government”.