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Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front (Portugal)

Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago Madeirense

[Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front (Portugal)]

2:3 image by Jorge Candeias, 7 Mar 2005

Description of the flag

See also:

Description and symbolism of the flag

I think I read somewhere that the flag of FLAMA was just the plain triband [blue-yellow-blue] whithout any devices in the central stripe… I'm far from being sure, though…
Jorge Candeias, 10 Aug 1999

The information we have about this movement, active immediately after the revolution of 25 April 1974, is very scarce, and there is no image. The little information we have is mine and refers doutedly to a simple triband as the flag of FLAMA. We have more information about the flag of another movement, the Movimento Democrático de Libertação da Madeira (pt}mdlm.html) and a picture showing a triband charged at the center with a cross of "quinas".
However, the Público newspaper published at 4 February 2003 a very interesting photograph that I'm attaching as , and that shows a younger version of one Alberto João Jardim, the polemic character that somehow hasmanaged to remain as president of the regional government of Madeira fromthe very first autonomical government to this day. This fellow appears in the photo dressed with a sweater that has the incription "Madeira Minha Pátria" (Madeira, My Fatherland) and the flag with the cross of quinas (although smaller than the image by António Martins-Tuválkin shows it. One could assume that this is a MDLM seater, but the article that comes with the picture the following is written (my comments and precisions between square brackets):

"The arrival of Alberto João Jardim to the presidency of the regional government coincides with the end of terrorist activities attributed to the Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago da Madeira (Flama) which congregated radical sectors of the Madeira right wing and some leaders of the PPD [today, PSD] and CDS [today CDS/PP] political parties. “The idea of a certain approximation between Flama and the PPD sets in, since this party was practically alone in the public expression of the autonomist indocrination”, says [Magalhães Mota, co-founder of the PPD, interviewed for the article].
Jardim let himself be photographed wearing the sweater of that separatist movement, with the flamist inscription “Madeira, minha pátria”. he adopted the blue and yellow flag as the official regional flag, replacing the lusitan quinas by the Cross of the Order of Christ, after a suggestion made by Dom Francisco Santana, appointed bishop of Funchal at the end of the Portuguese dictatorship [no longer under Salazar, I think; probably under Marcelo Caetano]."

So, it seems that the information we have , both by me and by Jaume Ollé, attributing the flag with the quinas to the MDLM, is wrong. Apparently, this flag belonged to the FLAMA.
Another explanation, that also has some likelyhood, is that the MDLM and the FLAMA were one and the same thing (or the FLAMA being the“ armed wing” of the MDLM, OSLT), sharing a flag, which would be, for them, the flag of the state of Madeira. I can't tell which explanation is right, but I find both to be likely. I just leave you with the pictures, the photo of Alberto João Jardim and my rendition of the FLAMA flag (see above).
This fragment of article also has some information about the origin of the flag of Madeira (hum... and now I get to the conclusion that I should have noted down the name of the author of this article, and not only the date and the source... my bad... :( ).
Jorge Candeias, 7 Mar 2005