Mário Cruz / Lusa
Chega’s president, André Ventura
André Ventura once again defended the need for “three Salazars” to rebuild Portugal, accusing other candidates of wanting to sell the country and kneeling before others. “This man doesn’t respect anything or anyone” and “he cannot and will not be President”, says Marques Mendes.
Second Andre Ventura“It only takes three Salazars because they let this become a complete bandagewe only need three Salazars because they let this flood with corruption”.
“We only need three Salazars because they left Everyone can enter without asking for registration”, argued the leader of Chega, highlighting that, in Madeira, for example, just one or two was enough to put an end to the “drug crime”.
In an intervention at a lunch/rally with mayors elected by Chega, in Funchal, Ventura sought to distance himself from the values of April and demarcate himself from those he considered his own. main opponents in the race to BelémGouveia e Melo, Marques Mendes and António José Seguro.
“On January 18th, three projects will be at stake of selling the country, of ceding the country, of kneeling to others, and another project which is to never kneel, to defend our dignity, to walk with our heads held high”, he stated.
“I’m not April’s candidate, I’m Portugal’s candidate”, he declared, reinforcing: “It is the candidacy of Portugueseness, it is the candidacy of our values, it is the candidacy of Lusitânia, It is a candidacy that wants to unite Portugal and show the world that we really want to get back on our feet.”
The presidential candidate and leader of Chega considered that Portugal has been too much time with “head down and knees bent”stressing that now it is necessary to look for young people who emigrated, telling them that “they have to return to the great homeland” that is Portugal.
“We don’t want this systembecause they brought us April and pretended that April solved all our problems and we walked along the avenues on our heads saying April, April, April while the young people had to leave, while the ex-combatants died in poverty, while they were winning, they were getting richer and we were going getting poorer and poorerwhile it was business for them and their friends and the country was becoming poorer and more humiliated”, he argued.
Andre Ventura criticized the candidacies by António José Seguro, Marques Mendes and, especially, that of Gouveia e Melofor the positions he takes on immigration and for considering the former President of the Republic Mário Soares as a model.
“We have to win because this country has to be put in order”, he declared, showing confidence that Madeira will give him victory in the first round.
In his speech, which was interrupted several times by loud applause, André Ventura reaffirmed that three Salazars were needed to straighten the country, an expression used on Friday in an interview with SIC.
In relation to the mayors elected by Chega, André Ventura alerted them to the challenges of proximity governance, stressing the obligation to combat corruption and end up as “mama” which claims to be installed in local authorities.
“The power of proximity is the power of influence and in a democracy this influence must be used well, because quickly the influence turns into corruptionit quickly turns into trafficking and quickly turns into friendliness”, he warned.
“Believe this, screw the elections”, he declared, maintaining that the duty of Chega’s elected representatives is to be honest and truthful.
Ventura “cannot and will not be President”
The presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes considered this Sunday that his opponent André Ventura “cannot be President of the Republic nor will her”, accusing him of “dividing the Portuguese” and “undermining democracy”.
On the sidelines of a visit to the Feira de Santa Iria, in Tomar, in the district of Santarém, the former PSD leader considered “simply regrettable” the statements made by Chega’s president in the interview with SIC in which he argued that Portugal needed “three Salazars”.
“The country needs a President who unites the Portuguese. This man is here to turn them against each other”, maintained Marques Mendes. The former PSD leader and candidate for Belém stressed that the country requires a head of state who defends the democracy and mutual respect.
“This man doesn’t respect anything or anyoneas seen in this recent interview. In a word: this man will not be, nor can he be, President of the Republic”, he highlighted.
The former social democratic leader said that, unlike André Ventura, he wants to “defend respect for each other and ideas from one to the other. He wants to divide the Portuguese, I want to unite. He wants to undermine and even destroy democracy. I want to reinforce the quality of our democracy.”
“That’s what a President of the Republic should do. They are completely opposite camps and that’s why I say that this man cannot be President, nor will he be President, because this is not what the Portuguese want of a President of the Republic”, he maintained.
Marques Mendes also said that Ventura “wants to be prime minister” and not President of the Republic, intending with his candidacy for Belém to “create noise, confusion and provocation”.
“He only knows how to live based on noise, confusion and provocation. That is why a person like that cannot be President of the Republic, nor will he be President of the Republic”, he added.
