Even Chega’s own bench was surprised by the vote against the labor package

The management’s decision took many parliamentarians by surprise and generated discomfort on the bench, with some deputies even threatening to present declarations of vote.

Chega’s decision to vote against the Government’s proposal to review labor legislation caught a large part of the parliamentary bench by surprise of the party and generated moments of evident discomfort in the plenary of the Legislative Assembly.

The vote was kept confidential until the final moments as indicated by the party leadership, in a strategy designed to prevent information leaks during last-minute negotiations with the Government.

According to information obtained by , the majority of deputies were unaware that contacts between Chega and the Executive had not produced an understanding that would make the so-called labor package viable. Therefore, many party parliamentarians were slow to react to André Ventura’s movement at the time of the vote.

While the left benches immediately rose to reject the initiative, the leader of Chega joined the vote against, accompanied by the parliamentary leader, Pedro Pinto, and the deputies Rita Matias and Cristina Rodrigues. THE remaining parliamentary group was more hesitantincluding Eduardo Teixeira, Chega coordinator at the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee; Rui Paulo Sousa, president of the Transparency and Statute of Deputies Committee, and Rui Afonso, who chairs the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee.

The internal discomfort was enough for some parliamentarians consider submitting declarations of votea hypothesis that ended up not moving forward, according to DN. Even so, among the deputies surprised by the decision, several recognize that the leadership’s position can be justified by the Government’s lack of openness to accept the party’s demands.

In negotiations held over the last week, Chega defended a set of measures as a condition to support the diploma. Among them was the progressive return of retirement age to 65 for workers with 40 years of discounts, the replacement of 25 days of vacation associated with attendance that were eliminated by the troika, leave for grandparents to care for grandchildren, reinforcement of rights related to breastfeeding and better conditions for shift workers.

Without guarantees that these measures would be integrated into the diploma, André Ventura chose to combine Chega’s votes with those of the left, contributing to the lead of the government’s labor proposal.