It has taken 26 years for a defamation claim against the former president of Madeira Alberto João Jardim to get its day in court.
The reason, explain reports, is that while he was in office, Mr Jardim was protected by ‘political immunity’.
Now retired, his remarks describing a fellow politician in very pejorative terms can be ‘assessed’.
Mr Jardim – notorious for speaking his mind – described former MP António Loja as “an idiot” and “a lunatic” in an opinion article published in 1994.
