The Social Democratic Party (PSD) of regional premier Miguel Albuquerque voted against the motion. The People’s Party (PP) abstained, while other opposition parties voted in favour.

This was the second motion of censure faced by the regional government; the one was rejected by the assembly on 15 June.

Albuquerque’s predecessor, Alberto Joao Jardim, faced seven such motions during his 37 years in power.

The PP's leader in the assembly, António Lopes da Fonseca, questioned the appropriateness of the motion's timing, pointing out that it had been announced after a recent reshuffle of the regional government. The new executive should, he said, be given "the benefit of the doubt" on whether it would "change course".

However, he stressed, if the government does not change course the PP will vote against the draft regional budget for 2018.

The Socialist Party had justified its tabling the censure motion with the "evident collpase" of the PSD majority.

The PSD won the last regional elections, with 24 out of the assembly's 47 seats, but one of the deputies elected on its candidate lists is an independent who has distanced himself from the governing party. Opinion polls also point to the PSD as having lost its dominant position in the region's politics.

There are signs, however, that the PSD and PP are moving closer, with alliances at municipal level that are unprecedented in Madeira although relatively common in mainland Portugal.