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The agreement was made in the Azores, but it soon entered the political struggle at the national level. PAHO took the opportunity to beat Rui Rio to the extreme right at a difficult time for the government and even in the PSD there are more and more voices that are distancing themselves from the party leadership for having aligned themselves with this approach of Chega.
The negotiations were not easy. Not between Chega and PSD, nor between Ventura and the party leaders in the Azores. André Ventura was involved in the negotiations and did everything possible so that the agreement involved national issues, that is, the constitutional review. The differences between the two parties even led to a meeting, in the Assembly of the Republic, between Rui Rio and Ventura, on October 29. Ventura and Pacheco Amorim, vice president, also maintained contacts with José Silvano, PSD general secretary, and Adão Silva, parliamentary leader.
On the day he announced the agreement with the PSD, André Ventura got in touch with the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats to give notice of the statement he intended to make public. Rui Rio will have given instructions to clarify that there was no agreement at the national level and Chega changed the content of the statement.
André Ventura did not refer to a national agreement and only guaranteed that “the national PSD will deliver to the Assembly of the Republic, even in this legislature, a draft constitutional review that will include, not only what is included in its electoral program, as some aspects that are fundamental for us, having given guarantees that it will contemplate, among other aspects, the reduction of the number of deputies and the will to carry out a profound reform in justice.
It was the maximum that Ventura achieved after desisting from the demand for PSD participation in the constitutional review process initiated by Chega, which involved controversial issues such as the physical castration of pedophiles or life imprisonment.
Rui Rio continues to guarantee that the negotiation was made at the regional level and that there was no agreement on the continent. Arguments that do not convince many social democrats, who question any type of approach to a party with the characteristics of Chega. “It makes no sense to have a rapprochement with a party that has a life sentence in the program,” Paula Teixeira da Cruz, former Minister of Justice, tells SOL.
José Eduardo Martins, Pedro Duarte and Pacheco Pereira also strongly criticized the party leadership for siding with Chega.
Pacheco Pereira, a member of the Advisory Council of the National Strategic Council, described the agreement as a “great blunder.” In the TVI program Circulatura do Quadrado, the former parliamentary leader of the party considered that “this is an agreement that poisons the PSD and national political life.”
José Eduardo Martins, at RTP, also swept the leadership of Rui Rio: “I have been activism in PSD for 35 years and I don’t think we have made a mistake as serious as this one.”
Split right
The Azores agreement is dividing the PSD, but also on the right. Some argue that the 2015 agreements between the PS and far-left parties justify this approach. But there are also those who warn that it is a mistake to bring André Ventura’s party into the system.
Carlos Encarnação, a PSD historian, recalls that it was the PS who closed the door to the agreements with the PSD: “OPS is making a lot of noise, but it had no right to treat the PSD as it did.”
Manuela Ferreira Leite also recalls that António Costa drew “a red line” between PS and the right. In a comment on TVI, the former president of the party praised Rui Rio for “dismantling a strategy that was designed by António Costa in the sense that there is no possibility that anyone will govern the country other than the PS together with the Left Bloc and the PCP ».
Marcelo distance-se
The agreement in the Azores entered the pre-campaign of the presidential elections. Ana Gomes and Marisa Matias challenged the President of the Republic to say what he thinks about a regional understanding that involves André Ventura’s party.
Marcelo did not dodge the issue and took the opportunity to distance himself from Chega’s “radicalization”, with the guarantee that during his term he tried to build bridges and “reinforce moderation.” The President of the Republic admitted this Friday that the solution is not “the ideal”, but rather “it was the solution that resulted from the functioning of the institutions.” For Marcelo, “constitutionally there is nothing to point out.” and the President of the Republic does not have to “like it or not like it.”
Ana Gomes and Marisa Matias did not miss the opportunity to attack Marcelo and Ventura.
The former PS deputy criticized, the day before Marcelo spoke about the agreement, the president for keeping silent on “a matter of such importance for the health of democracy in Portugal.”
Four year agreement
Chega pledged to support the coalition government between PSD, CDS and PPM during the four years of the legislature. In the parliamentary advocacy agreement, signed between José Manuel Bolieiro and Carlos Furtado, the parties “undertake to agree and vote in solidarity” on Government programs, motions of confidence or censure, and budgets.
The agreement reflects some demands made by Chega to support the government. The reduction of the number of deputies, a cabinet against corruption and the “reduction of subsidies” in the region are the main commitments assumed.
Changes in Social Insertion Income (RSI) in a region heavily hit by poverty are among the most controversial measures. The agreement, signed on the 6th of this month, establishes that economic development can break “the cycle of poverty” and reduce by 50%, at the end of the legislature, the number of beneficiaries of the Social Integration Income “in age to work and able to work. ‘
The document also establishes the performance of “a complete and complete audit of the last ten years of governance, as a way to guarantee total transparency at the beginning of a new cycle of government.”
