“Cotton test”: Chega votes against labor package if Government does not give in

“Comrade Ventura” threatens AD: no concessions, does not approve. What the Government wants to do is “stupid”.

Chega’s president, André Ventura, announced this Friday that his party will vote against the new labor package in parliament if the Government does not give in on matters such as dismissals e changes in the area of ​​parenting.

Speaking to journalists at the entrance to a meeting with the Bar Association, in Lisbon, André Ventura said that Chega is opposed to several of the measures foreseen in the draft revision of labor legislation presented by the Government and that, without concessions from the executive, the party will not approve it.

“If it were as it is now, it’s wrong, [o Chega] is against. Because it’s wrong. It’s an attack on those who work, it’s an attack on those who invest, it’s an attack on those who make an effort. It’s as simple as that”, he said, after being asked whether the party will vote against the diploma if there are no changes.

Asked about Chega’s conditions for negotiating with the Government to make changes to labor laws possible, André Ventura stated that the executive cannot go “after women who want to have children” and should retreat from the possibility of hiring on an ‘outsourcing’ basis after a dismissal.

“What the Government wants to do is create a feeling of unstable life in everyone. In that liberal logic, because if it’s something wild, everyone against everyone, we’ll all be better off. That’s wrong”, he said.

This Friday, on Observador radio, communist presidential candidate António Filipe admitted that “when André Ventura has to vote [as leis laborais] it will be the test of cotton”, he said, admitting that the strike “had such a significant impact” that it led the Chega leader to “turn the corner on the job”.

Yesterday, in the debate with Jorge Pinto, André Ventura had already made it clear that, in a way, he is in favor of the strikers.

“I warned the government from the beginning that we should avoid a general strike, trying to ensure that those who work feel valued because, nowadays, in fact, people who work feel that they are not valued and that they are supporting those who do not want to work, that if they feel that those who work shifts, those who work overtime, mothers who want to breastfeed their children while they work, all of this, in June, I warned the government that we were on the wrong path, we were creating an open bar for layoffs, for precariousness, We were creating a law that didn’t even matter to companies – even if the intention was to help SMEs, it was the wrong way to go.”

And he continued: “I warned you that there was issues that were absolutely scandalous – an example, the possibility of making collective redundancies and then resorting to outsourcing, today it is prohibited by law, the government wants to put an end to this, anyone realizes that it is stupid, excuse the word, it is stupid, it puts people in fear of being fired at any cost and in any way, this is a mistake”, he pointed out, leading even the candidate supported by Livre to question whether “comrade Ventura” wanted to join a union.