I’m confident interviewing Ventura in a debate without any major nonsense

António José Seguro’s registration remained unchanged; André Ventura’s too, but at a slightly lower volume.

Antonio José Insurance and Andrew Ventura they were face to face, on the only television broadcast of the campaign for the second round of the presidential elections.

António José Seguro’s record remained: apparent tranquility, low volume, calm posture. Without major commitments and, once again, far from controversy.

André Ventura’s record was also maintained, with attacks and more attacks, but at a slightly lower volume than usual at different times.

What is at stake

For the former PS leader, the choice in this second round is either “to choose”, or “eliminate”. He said again that he is happy to have “support from all quarters, even outside the parties”. Everything around the “president of the union”.

The president of Chega has another perspective on the vote on February 8th: “People are not going to vote Safe, they will vote against me”; “It will be a fight between elites against the people”; “Seguro is captured by the system”.

For Ventura, Insurance only says “generalities”, does not present concrete proposals; and even cited Cavaco Silva, who went so far as to say that the former secretary general of the socialists was not nominated for the Belém Palace. People have the right to change their opinions, responded Seguro.

“If it’s to please everyone, vote for António José Seguro, or if you want a kind of queen of england”, commented Ventura.

Health

In a debate without any major nonsense, the atmosphere heated up when Health became the topic.

André Ventura, as President of the Republic, would oblige the Government to have a plan concrete way to solve the problems. Repeating his criticism of António Costa’s governments, he asked: “How is it possible for us to even believe that António José Seguro is going to make any demands in terms of health?”. And he mentioned the “bandalheira”, again.

The opponent recalled that he does not represent the PS in these elections: “You are in the wrong election. This is not a parliamentary debate.” Regarding Health, he defends a pact between parties. Because “it’s a different thing for the President of the Republic to demand from political parties, including the Government, a compromise solution that is lasting.”

Immigration

Another “hotter” topic was immigration, with Seguro raising his voice a little.

While defending that Portugal needs immigration – for the economy, for Social Security, for the rejuvenation of our demographic base – he accused André Ventura of having a “potty policy in which everything is mixed”, creating “division and fear in Portuguese society”.

At a certain point, as described by , none of the three moderators (RTP, SIC and TVI) interrupted the conversation between the two presidential candidates; and Seguro was practically interviewing Venturaasking several questions.

“We cannot have people coming in anyway”, reacted Ventura, while insisting that Portugal only needs immigrants because “we pay our own people badly”. He warned that many immigrants accentuate the housing and health crises.

There were accusations on both sides, more moderate on Seguro’s side, more aggressive on Ventura’s side; but without the shouting of other debates.

Closer to the end, António José Seguro said that Donald Trump is a “friend” of André Ventura and said: “Ventura gets paid to talk, I get paid to work”.