Chega will vote in favor of the PS proposal to eliminate tolls in the former SCUT, the party leader announced this Thursday, who indicated that he had not reached an agreement with the Government to schedule a gradual reduction of these tolls.
Speaking to journalists in parliament, André Ventura announced that he had instructed the Chega Parliamentary Group to approve the PS diploma, which is being debated and voted on today, considering that, if it were to make it unfeasible, the party “would be absolutely inconsistent with itself”.
“Chega defended in an electoral campaign, clearly and explicitly, the end of all tolls. I actually said that it was one of the boldest proposals. It was the commitment we made: to work gradually towards the end of all tolls”, he stated.
Ventura highlighted that Chega sought to reach consensus with the Government on a timetable for the lowering of tolls – instead of being immediate, as proposed by the PS -, but it was not possible to reach an agreement.
Thus, “Chega will enable the immediate descent and immediate end of tolls on the ex-SCUT, as we understand that a proposal that is too gradual and without commitment could hurt the expectations of the Portuguese, who feel that they have real relief from tolls”, he announced.
With this vote in favor of Chega, the PS proposal will have enough votes to be approved in general.
André Ventura argued that “the Government should victimize itself less and govern more” and accused the PS of “enormous hypocrisy” for now proposing to reduce tolls, when it was in the Government for eight years and did not do so.
“But with the Government’s hypocrisy we live well. What we don’t live well is being left with the weight of responsibility for having defended, during an entire campaign, the end of tolls and now being an obstacle to their immediate reduction or exemption”, he stated .
Asked about the reasons why he did not reach an agreement with the Government to schedule the gradual reduction of tolls, the Chega leader did not want to elaborate, highlighting that there are responsibilities “on both sides” for not having reached consensus.
“We assume our responsibility in this part, but, given the option we had to make it viable or unfeasible, and knowing that only Chega can make this proposal viable, we understand that it must be made viable because it will allow, in the coming months, people to leave to pay tolls in key areas”, he said.
