Speaking at a dinner-rally in Loures (Lisbon district), on Friday night, to mark the 25th of November, André Ventura said he was surprised by the PSD’s choice.
“I heard Luís Montenegro say that we had to find out, we had to know and investigate, this was a week and a half or two ago. I was aware that this was going to happen, for the first time in many years since António Costa entered the Government we could have the first truly right-wing front to force this Government to be investigated ”, he defended.
“The PSD finally withdrew from the commission of inquiry, and I had the clear feeling that someone had called the leader of the PSD and told him ‘don’t get involved in this because that will be left over to the PSD’”, pointed out the leader of Chega .
And he considered that when “there is a scandal”, the “other party also does not want to investigate because it could affect him, then another one is born and this same party is not interested because one day, who knows, in the future, this could have consequences for them.”
“They created a gigantic octopus, they created a huge corruption machine that is sedimented in our history of 46 years ago”, he accused.
On Sunday, Chega formalized in parliament the proposal to set up a commission of inquiry for deputies to assess “the possible political interference of the prime minister over the former governor of Banco de Portugal, regarding the position of businesswoman Isabel dos Santos at BIC Português SA” and “whether the Banif resolution process was subject to abusive interference by the Government”.
On Wednesday, the PSD asked António Costa 12 questions about the removal of Isabel dos Santos from the BIC and about the Banif resolution, but did not completely rule out the possibility of a parliamentary inquiry into the case in the future, with the leader of parliament stating that the party will decide whether to go forward “depending on the responses” of the prime minister.
Today, the leader noted that his party “was the only one” to come forward with the proposal for a parliamentary inquiry and criticized “the left-wing parties [que] they whistled to the side, they said that this is not at issue now, [que] what matters is the great struggle of the working class”, while the Liberal Initiative “can’t say much about banking, that’s why I didn’t say anything”.
Still in the context of this case, the president of Chega accused the prime minister of being “in the face of separation of powers, independence or independent regulation”.
André Ventura accused António Costa of wanting to “protect his relationship with Angola”, protect “his relationship with the Santos family” and “protect a criminal”.
In his speech lasting about 30 minutes, the president of Chega made a parallel between November 25, 1975 and the present day, and highlighted the party’s fight “against the system”.
“Today it is not the PCP wanting to put fiats at the door of the barracks or flying over the air of Portugal, today it is the PS infiltrating justice, public administration, banking, companies and wanting to command and command everything in Portugal, and there is only one party that stands up to them, the only one they fear because it is not afraid to face them”, he defended.
André Ventura assumed that Chega will not “give up until it is the main opposition party in Portugal to fight for the Government against António Costa in 2026” and pointed out that “the fight of tanks, weapons and planes in the sky is today the fight of street by street to conquer the soul of the Portuguese”.
“This 25th of November that we need, this 25th of November that we have been transported to today, is the fight that we have to wage today against corruption in the socialist government, against the progressive annulment of the middle class, against the brutal increase in taxes, against the destruction of pensioners, against the misery they want to veto us”, he listed.