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Negotiations between Chega and the PSD for the viability of a right-wing government in the Azores have already taken their toll. Dissatisfied with the process, the vice president of Chega Açores, Orlando Lima, announced on Monday his resignation from office and leaving the party. In the resignation letter, published on his Facebook page, the former Chega leader accuses André Ventura of having taken a “regrettable centralist position”, “neglecting the interests of the Azoreans” in favor of the interests of the national leadership.
“Azorean governance is done for the defense of the Azorean people, not to resolve the affairs of the lords of Lisbon or to score points with the continental electorate”, can be read in the letter sent to the national director of Chega.
According to Orlando Lima, the party president “extrapolated the decisions that should be local” to the “child defense of the interests of the national ‘Chegans’,” ignoring the priorities of the Autonomous Region. “It is an attitude of which I am ashamed and I apologize to my electorate and to the Azorean people, hoping that the deputies that I helped to elect will find their space of independence, necessary for the immediate correction of these asymmetries,” he adds.
It also regrets the four conditions imposed by Ventura to enable a PSD government in the Azores, which include PSD participation in the constitutional review process at the national level and, at the regional level, by conducting an audit of the governments of the PS from 2021, the commitment to reduce by half, in the four years of legislature, the beneficiaries of Social Integration Income (RSI) and the presentation of a regional plan to combat corruption and patronage within a period of one year. For Orlando Lima, there are more important priorities for the region.
“Our corruption problems are real and local, our demands and needs go through local problems, more immediate than the 50% reduction in the RSI, however important it may be. I reiterate that in Terceira we have contamination and serious problems. Health problems that derive from it, radiotherapy, the unfortunate works in Porto Pipas, problems with maritime and air transport ”, he argues.
Regional management is also subject to criticism
The former leader of Chega Açores also criticizes the regional leadership, which in his opinion lacked the capacity to handle the situation and referred to “opacity” and “silences.” On the night of October 25, I recommended André Ventura to be removed from the media, and Regional President Carlos Augusto Furtado must assume the communication to the press, since this is his victory and ours and because it is his duty and responsibility to lead to Chega Regional for the difficult but challenging way to ensure, through careful negotiation with right-wing political partners, an alternative governance, ”explains Orlando Lima, regretting not having attended his council.
Contacted by Expresso, André Ventura guarantees that he is “surprised” by this resignation and criticizes the arguments invoked by Orlando Lima, stressing that “it must be understood that there are no Chega Açores, Chega Madeira and Chega Braga.” “There is a national Chega and convictions and values cannot be lost,” he says.
But, in fact, Ventura has already admitted internal conflicts at the regional level. Proof of this was the letter sent this Wednesday by the president of Chega to the regional leaders of the party, asking them not to give in to the “pressure” of the PSD and the CDS to enable a right-wing regional government. In this letter, the leader stated that the party had to be coherent and continue to insist that any understanding with the PSD would have to go through the party’s participation in Chega’s constitutional revision project.
