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Favorable for decriminalizing abortion, defender of same-sex marriage and critic of the dictator António Salazar. André Ventura guarantees that all this is so, even if they are not the convictions and proposals of the party that he founded and directs. In an interview with the Lusa agency, the Chega representative and deputy said that he does not agree with the party and criticized Salazar’s incompetence in managing the country. But minutes before Lusa’s cameras began recording and photographing, Chega’s aides made sure to remove the volume set on Salazar from the shelf behind the party leader, so that they would not appear in the frame of the recorded images.
Was Salazar good for the country? Ventura says no
In the interview, André Ventura rejects the labels of “extreme right, fascist, xenophobic and racist” that many attribute to his party and also any sympathy for the Estado Novo regime or nostalgia for the dictator Salazar. “There is no need for Salazar in any corner,” but for a Fourth Republic, he said.
“The Republic led by dr. António de Oliveira Salazar, most of the time, did not solve [os problemas do país] and it delayed us greatly in various ways. It did not allow us to have the development that we could have had, especially in the post-WWII setting. Portugal could have developed extraordinarily and we are left behind, as are the Spanish, ”he said. And he added that “you don’t need a Salazar at every corner, you need André Ventura at every corner.”
“With me they are calm because I have no longing for a Republic that I did not live. That’s not what moves me. I see Salazar like other figures in history. I will not judge which is better or worse: if Salazar or [Álvaro] Cunhal or Hitler or Stalin. We, in Portugal, to really advance on the political issue, we have to leave the ghosts of the past, “he continued.
André Ventura warns that he has twice the result that the polls point to the presidential elections
Tiago Petinga / Lusa
Asked about Chega’s links with radical right-wing movements and his ideological roots, the presidential candidate opted for the appointment of an “anti-system party.” Chega has parts of the country where the militants come predominantly from the left spectrum, such as Setúbal, Beja, Évora, Portalegre. In Portalegre, it is the second or third in terms of surveys. There our electorate came from the PCP, BE, some from the PS and, as happens everywhere, from the PSD and the CDS ”, he described.
In Ventura’s interpretation, Chega is “a right-wing party, in the classic classification -with a vision of the country of values, defense of institutions and the market-, but in the anti-system logic, which is a more appropriate classification than the one on the extreme right. , far left, left, right ”.
Gay marriage must have “the same rights”
Chega’s presidential candidate affirms that “being homosexual does not devalue anyone at all” and proved to be in favor of marriage gay, adding that his party has people of different sexual orientations, “eventually” even in top management. Despite André Ventura’s various positions against the rights of minorities, be they refugees, immigrants or the gypsy community, the leader of the Portuguese far-right party guarantees that “if I had a homosexual child, I would have no problem with that.” “I have many gay friends, some of the brightest I have ever met, who speak very well to me and realize that I have never had a wave of combativeness with homosexuals or the LGBT community,” he replied.
Returning to the point that “perhaps some part” of the electorate ”of Chega does not agree with him, Ventura declared that the right he dreamed of,“ as in many parts of Europe, is a right in which people come together. around causes, convictions and not the personal conditions of each one ”, because“ being homosexual does not devalue anyone in anything and does not devalue the capacity for political combat ”.
“I think, I have no data in this regard, that Chega has homosexuals among its thousands of militants. Among the leaders, eventually. And I want to keep it that way. If I had a homosexual son, I would respect him, ”he said.
On “if he would be happy” if his son were homosexual and married “on the same terms as other people”, the president of Chega agrees with exactly the same rights that are attributed to a union between a man and a woman, but respect that “the majority of the party has another and understands that marriage should not exist in exactly the same terms.” “My personal position is that a male or female couple should have no fewer rights in terms of their presence in society than a male-female couple,” he said.
Ventura defends abortion
The national-populist leader also gave an example of abortion, an issue on which he also has a position of possible “disagreement with the party base.”
“I have always said that, ethically, I understand and am against abortion, but I do not propose its criminalization, because it does not work, it does not solve it. I understand that the majority in the party thinks it must be a crime, but it shocks me as a lawyer and as a politician, “he concluded.
Enough “should have entered the Government of the Azores”
André Ventura argued that his party should have been part of the Regional Government of the Azores (and that this simply did not happen because Chega did not want to). “The PPM, I think, had 2% of the vote, or something like that. We had almost 6%. Those who should be in the government would be us, but we didn’t want to, ”he emphasized.
Although it was fundamental for the formation of a PSD government, Ventura rejected that the support given to the formation of the new Azorean regional executive has meant a “crutch.” But in September, at the party’s II National Convention, André Ventura had promised to reject coalitions with other parties while he was the leader of Chega.
“As president-elect of Chega, with the legitimacy that the election of 99% of the militants of the entire country of this party gives me, I want to say one thing: while I sit in that middle seat – coalitions or even watch them!” , he promised at the party congress, about a month before supporting the PSD in the Azores. Now, Ventura argues that he was not “there is no one’s crutch “and that Chega” said that he would not yield if there was convergence in some points, and that he would not go to the government.
In Ventura’s opinion, Chega had only two options: vote against the PS government, which “would never allow”, or make a right-wing government possible, “with conditions.” And he admits that these agreements, after all, can be replicated at the national level. But for that to happen, it is Ventura who makes the demands: “deeper reforms, both in terms of justice, both in the political system and in the tax system.” “We will only accept to enable a right-wing government here if these conditions are ensured, and if they are not, we will vote against,” he stressed, admitting that if this is not the case, “people will say” that “the anti-system has become a distribution of system seats “.
The candidate for the Presidency of the Republic defended the holding of legislative elections “in the short term”, especially because “Chega was going to grow a lot.” Giving the example of the approval of the State Budgets, the candidate considered that a President of the Republic “should never allow the Government, already in decline, to lose the support of one of its left-wing partners, the Bloco de Esquerda, and will go fishing props “. .
The candidate for Belém André Ventura accuses Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of being the President of the Republic “most complicit” of the Government since April 25, serving as a “lightning rod” to the Prime Minister, António Costa. “I think it is a mandate whose main word is characterization, ‘complicity’. Complicity with the Government, I think that was what Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa bet from the beginning of his mandate, “he said.
The candidate recalled that the President of the Republic “had already said, as a commentator, that the Portuguese never put all their eggs in the same basket”, and therefore decided “not to harass the Government of the PS”, because if the Government “changes to the right, it is more difficult ”to be reelected.
For André Ventura, “this can be seen in several things”, for example “in the next call to approve the State Budget”. “In fact, I have never seen a president so enthusiastic about a government like Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. I think it was the President who was most enthusiastic about the Government, many times he served as a lightning rod to the Government when the tone rose in the Assembly of the Republic, although since Rui Rio also entered it never rose so much, but he was always the lightning rod. António Costa, ”he said.
Ventura believes it will “double” what the polls say
The Chega leader was also convinced that he will “be able to have twice what the polls suggest” and that he will run for a second round in the presidential elections. And although it does not know what restrictions may be in force due to the evolution of the pandemic, Ventura guarantees that it will not stop going out, because that will be its advantage. “I will not stop going to places because that is our advantage,” he defended, exemplifying that rallies can go from the street to the auditoriums, with marked seats, and that dinners can give way to cocktails.
Regarding the announcement of leaving the party leadership if Ana Gomes anticipates her once the electoral results are determined, Ventura reiterated this intention: “Yes, of course, when I say things it is to maintain. What I meant by that is that I have to draw responsibilities and conclusions from the fact that Dr. Ana Gomes has more [votos] that I “.
