Suffice it to say that Costa “didn’t like to learn firsthand” what teachers experience in schools.

Chega compared this Wednesday’s June 10 teachers’ protests in Peso da Régua to the situations faced by teachers in schools and felt that the prime minister “didn’t want to experience it the hard way.”

In a political statement in the Assembly of the Republic, MP Gabriel Mita Ribeiro addressed the protests of teachers in Peso da Régua during Portugal Day celebrations, Camões and Portuguese communities, which included posters of the prime minister with two pencils stuck in. eyes and pig nose.

“I have very little concern that the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister or the Minister is insulted, disrespected, mistreated, not allowed in the performance of his functions, while this political class remains indifferent to similar and much more serious actions that affect every day. a teacher or a policeman is also on duty,” he said.

The MP from Cheg considered that “the prime minister did not like to endure circumstances comparable to the classroom, in which teachers have to endure such conditions every day, every year” and “lost self-control.”

“Just replace the image of the prime minister surrounded by teachers on the street with the image of teachers surrounded by students in the classroom who do not respect them, do not let them speak, intimidate, humiliate, discredit, ridicule. insults” and “may attack,” he pointed out.

Gabriel Mita Ribeiro, a teacher by profession, defended that “a smart and responsible political class should make the episodes of June 10 in Peso da Régua a turning point” in relation to teachers.

The MP also accused António Costa of using “the word racism in the most clumsy, wrong, unfair and even unreasonable way.”

In a single request for clarification on Chega’s political statement, PSD MP António Cunha felt that “no matter how offended António Costa must feel about what happened on June 10, the prime minister should be above any poster.”

“I didn’t see this concern when other posters appeared and at other times,” he criticized, also stating that “it’s not fair to take part for the whole.”

The Social Democrat also accused the latest leaders of “having fun with the dismantling of the public school” for the past eight years, and stated that “the conflict between the government and teachers continues, and malaise in the schools is a concern.”

The theme of the posters, which depict the prime minister as a caricature with a pig’s nose and pencils stuck in his eyes, was already raised in passing in the plenary session by PS MP Rui Lage at the end of his political declaration, which had the theme of the Social Forum held two weeks ago in Porto.

The Socialist believed that there had been a “degradation of the political language” in Portugal, contributing to the creation of “an unhealthy environment that breeds forms of protest as pitiful as the one targeted by the Prime Minister on June 10 and reminiscent of the racial baggage of June 10 another time” .

In Rui Lage’s request for clarification, MP João Cotrim Figueiredo of the Liberal Initiative told him: “I didn’t hear your voice when the Prime Minister came here to talk about creaking cupcakes, I didn’t hear him talking.”

“It’s just that I sleep very well on the other side, I’m not offended at all, this is immensely funny to me, and I will always defend freedom of speech, even if it is rude and even if it comes from the lips of the Prime Minister. I ask him if he does the same and if you manage to convince your colleagues on the bench, ”added Cotrim Figueiredo.

Rui Lage responded that his reference to “discursive degradation” referred to the “Portuguese political class” as a whole and that “for reasons of modesty” he would not “list all the derogatory language that has been used in debates in this house and beyond in political debate”.