He may have been an hour late, but as Chega party leader André Ventura entered the auditorium of the Vila Galé hotel, in Santa Cruz, he soon let it be known that winning a seat in the Madeiran Legislative Assembly is one of his major objectives.
During his address he said “Chega is in the process of internal elections and one of the most important areas is Madeira; and for that reason, we wanted to have one of the four ‘clarification sessions’ here. Madeira will be the stage for one of the most important political battles that we will fight, especially as Chega has no party representation in Madeira.”
Even before entering the room, André Ventura made a point of telling journalists that he rejected Ana Gomes’ statements, regarding the possible illegalisation of Chega, and an international police collaboration to investigate the party. “We have nothing to hide,” he said, promising that Chega will respond very vehemently, especially on the streets against one of the biggest attacks on democracy since the 25th of April.
Without wanting to give any details, Ventura assured those present that “we will be out there on the streets, and all will soon be revealed!”
Only a couple of hours ago, the President of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque was forced to reiterate again that his party, the PSD, has no political allegiance with Chega. In his statement, he said “PSD / M knows, as it always has, its main opponent is the PS- Madeira and its anti-autonomous appendices at the service of Lisbon’s centralism. Unlike others, historically, we have never had any doubts in identifying and denouncing the political forces that constituted the greatest threat to the Freedom of Madeirans and the Conquered Autonomy.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
