Temido accuses Marcelo of “disrespecting history”. Chega’s conviction reaps criticism | European elections

The parties submitted, this Monday, the definitive list of candidates for the European Parliament to the Constitutional Court. Some of the leaders and heads of the list criticized both the statements made by the President of the Republic – who argued that Portugal must repair the countries it colonized – and the vote of condemnation presented by Chega, which classified Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s statements as “a betrayal to the Portuguese people and their history”.

“We are not aligned with show offs media”, stated Inês Sousa Real, referring to the vote of condemnation presented by Chega on the statements made by the President of the Republic defending historic reparations for colonization. For the PAN spokesperson, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s statements were “unfortunate “, since the discussion must be had but in another context.

Rui Rocha criticizes Chega’s position, which he classifies as an “attempt at protagonism”. The president of the Liberal Initiative regretted the attention that has been given to the past that “should be closed”.

Regarding the controversy surrounding Chega, Marta Temido believes that “it is not worth commenting” on the initiatives of André Ventura’s party but recalls that “democracy has its own rules and we hope that all political forces respect the rules of democracy”.

The statements made by the President of the Republic were criticized by the head of the socialists’ list: the topics are “too sensitive to be discussed en passantso that they can be treated in the light, light context of a statement of circumstance.” “And I think that this is even, in some way, disrespecting what history is, what is the involvement of all parties in a historical process”, he stressed.

Both the coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda and the candidate for MEP, Catarina Martins, did not want to comment on the controversy involving the President of the Republic and Chega, as Mariana Mortágua spoke about the topic during the 25th of April celebrations, in the Assembly of the Republic, where he considered that Portugal should open a debate about the colonial past.

Sebastião Bugalho, head of the AD list, refused to comment on the President of the Republic’s statements about the need for Portugal to historically repair colonized countries.

Regarding Chega’s vote to condemn the statements made by the President of the Republic, André Ventura says that he wants to see it clarified that: “Portugal will not initiate any process of reparation to the former colonies”, as “we should not review history”. “We didn’t compensate the ex-combatants and are we going to compensate the colonies?”, asks André Ventura.

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