Ventura guarantees Montenegro that he will not count on Chega and will have to govern with PS

The leader of Chega assured the prime minister-designate this Wednesday that he will not count on his party in this political cycle and will have to govern with the PS, after several political forces accused him of institutional blockade.

During the period of interventions following the speech by the new president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, André Ventura considered that, in the composition for the parliamentary table, the PSD had the choice of “either making a convergence to the right, or choosing the usual travel partners”, in an allusion to the PS.

“Today, Luís Montenegro chose and had no doubts: the path is to govern with the PS, to make an agreement with the PS. Luís Montenegro, face to face I tell you: you will govern with the PS, because you won’t count with Chega in this political cycle” , he said, to a long applause from his bench.

This intervention by André Ventura came after the majority of parties accused Chega of creating an institutional blockade by rejecting the name of José Pedro Aguiar-Branco for the presidency of parliament.

The future parliamentary leader of the PSD, Hugo Soares, was the only one who did not directly address this impasse, congratulating Aguiar-Branco, but “also good luck in carrying out his duties”, and asking that all benches know how to “honor the meaning trust” of the Portuguese.

The PSD’s commitment is “to specific people, to those who have little to do with political matters”, he guaranteed.

In turn, the parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, promised a “programmatic, political opposition to the right-wing Government”, but without being “opposition to the country or blocking democratic institutions”.

“The president is here today as the first among us because a responsible party is opposing, but it is not opposing the country, nor is it blocking an institution like the Assembly of the Republic. We will have plenty of time to mark a clear division of waters in political options ( …) they don’t count on us is to further degrade the institutions of the Republic and the Assembly of the Republic”, he said.

The leader of IL, Mariana Leitão, accused PS and Chega of having joined together “in a blockade of the country” and considered that the impasse surrounding the presidency of parliament shows that “you cannot trust a populist and irresponsible party that has no solution for the country”, also pointing to “the end of PS hegemony” with the elections.

For BE, the parliamentary leader, Fabian Figueiredo, said he hopes that Aguiar-Branco will make an “uncompromising defense of parliamentary democracy” and that he will “make every effort to avoid the capture of the Assembly of the Republic by the power games of those who merely focus on its degradation.”

“The right is confusion, confusion and confusion, they don’t even understand each other at the table of the Assembly of the Republic. (…) We have no doubt, however, that we will not witness this regrettable armistice when the time comes to defend the privilege” of economic groups, he said.

The parliamentary leader of the PCP, Paula Santos, considered that the election for the presidency of parliament was a “regrettable serial” which, despite “the maneuvers and dissimulations regarding agreements and disagreements, do not deceive the identification of objectives that unite the right and their convergence at the service of monopoly capital”.

In turn, Livre’s parliamentary leader, Isabel Mendes Lopes, regretted that Aguiar-Branco had not spoken to his party before being elected and questioned how “he will prevent deputies from insulting other deputies”.

The leader of the CDS, Nuno Melo, accused Chega of “blocking the normal functioning of democratic institutions”, considering that he was “playing with parliament”, and said that the centrists will show that two deputies can be worth “much more ” than 50.

The PAN’s sole deputy, Inês de Sousa Real, lamented that this legislature brings “great challenges” and “setbacks”, especially in terms of gender equality, taking into account that there are fewer women represented in parliament, and assured Chega that “no will pass.”