Ventura commented on the recent statements of Luís Montenegro, who considered “immoral a society where people who work get to the end of the month and earn less than people who don’t work”.
The president of Chega pointed this Monday to an “approximation of positions” of the PSD to his party, saying that, even without meetings, Luís Montenegro has already dropped some “red lines” on immigration and Social Security supports.
“If you start using the banners of Chega and say what the president of Chega says, it’s even better. He doesn’t want to meet with me, but he already says what I say, imagine if after meeting with me, he leaves saying that we have a very strong right-wing government for the next few years in Portugal,” said André Ventura, questioned by journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with the Mayor of Loures about the World Youth Days.
Ventura was asked, specifically, if recent statements by Luís Montenegro on immigration and on the income of people with Social Security support were an attempt to deflate the Chega flags.
“He is trying, but he can only deflate the PSD’s. The PSD always said they couldn’t talk to Chega because there would be three or four red lines, and among them are immigration or social security support,” he replied.
For André Ventura, “having the leader of the PSD saying, in a different way, what Chega and the president of Chega say can only mean that there are no red lines.
“We are on the right track to form a Government, I note this ‘mea culpa’ from Dr. Luís Montenegro, this turning face of the PSD. We are on the right track to have a Government that oversees the deviations of Social Security and a country that wants to welcome immigrants, welcome those who can – Chega is not against immigration, I hope that the PSD is not either – and that, of course, privileges the immigrant communities that are there to work and to integrate,” he said.
“PSD is making an effort to get closer” to Chega, says Ventura
When asked about the PSD president’s repeated refusal to meet with him, André Ventura considered it a “personal question” to ask Luís Montenegro, but dismissed this aspect.
“It’s clear that this PSD is a PSD that is making an effort to get closer because it realized that the right has these positions and realized that it can only govern on the right,” he stressed, saying that the party is returning to the path that the previous leader, Rui Rio, prevented it from following, that of “a PSD that wants to be on the right.”
“Then we will see who leads the right, at this moment it is still the PSD in the polls but we have hopes that very soon it could be Chega. For now it is a very positive sign that the positions are getting closer together,” he said.
On Sunday, the president of the PSD considered “immoral a society where people who work get to the end of the month and earn less than people who don’t work.”
“Regardless of the fact that we don’t want to leave anyone behind, the worst thing we can do is to discourage those who produce, those who work, those who have an opportunity, who give their effort and who arrive at the end of the month and have less income than those others who don’t make that effort,” defended the social-democrat leader, at the closing of the Congress of the Social-Democratic Workers (TSD).
On the same occasion, Luís Montenegro defended that Portugal needs to “attract qualified labor” as soon as possible and considered that foreign citizens should bring their families.
On Thursday, in Guarda, Montenegro had defended that the country should receive immigrants “in a regulated way” and “search around the world” for communities that can better interact with the Portuguese.
