The politics of Madeira, Portugal, takes place in the framework of a semi-presidential representative democracy and of a pluriform multi-party system.
[1][2] In the years immediately after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, a small clandestine far-right independence movement – the Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front (FLAMA) – was created in response to the perceived communist threat in the country's central government and carried out several bomb attacks.
[3] The current Portuguese Constitution, in force since 25 April 1976, granted political and administrative autonomy to the Madeiran and the Azorian archipelagoes and turned the local government throughout the country democratically elected.
Since the archipelago gained political autonomy from mainland Portugal in 1976, the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) has always been in power, winning 11 absolute majorities in a row over 43 years, and until recently it had always ruled most municipalities.
In 2019, for the first time since 1976, the PSD lost its parliamentary majority and was forced into a governmental coalition with the right-wing Popular Party.