Chega President Andre Ventura welcomed the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Lisbon this Monday and expressed support for that country’s accession to the European Union.
“We defend Ukraine, I welcome the arrival of President Zelensky in Portugal, if he were in Lisbon, and this would be possible, I would be in the first line to welcome him and applaud him,” he said.
Andre Ventura considered that the President of Ukraine “did a heroic job” and “is a hero of our time.”
The Chegi leader spoke to reporters before accompanying party candidates for the European elections on the street in Albufeira.
Regarding the bilateral cooperation and security agreement to be signed in Lisbon on Tuesday, Ventura said it could include military, economic, medical and humanitarian support, but refused to support sending Portuguese troops to fight in Ukraine.
President Chegi said that “victory over Russia in this war is of fundamental importance,” believing that if such a scenario were realized, “Europe would win.”
Andre Ventura also said that Ukraine “must join” the European Union, “even if it comes at a cost to cohesion funds and agriculture.”
Asked about the European political group that Chega belongs to, which includes several pro-Russian parties, the leader said that “there are different positions within the ID, but that’s good.”
“This is a sign that we are not a party with a central leadership, where someone rules and we bend the knee,” he added.
Andre Ventura also accused the “Brussels government,” namely the current leadership of the European Commission, of “supporting Putin for many years, and now, when the war broke out in Ukraine, they pretended that they had never met him.”
“If you look back, the current leader of the European Commission is not so far from who runs Berlin, and whoever is in charge of Berlin has an energy relationship with Russia that is easy to understand,” he said.
The head of the Chegi list in the European elections on June 9 was then asked how the party’s MEPs would vote if the European group they belong to voted against Ukraine’s entry into the European Union.
António Tangier Correa guaranteed that the party would continue to defend in Brussels what it defended: “support for Ukraine” and the enlargement of the Union.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Portugal on Tuesday, where he will be received by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, following an invitation issued in August 2023.
According to a note published on the official website of the President of the Republic on the Internet and simultaneously published by the Office of the Prime Minister, “President Zelensky’s working visit is part of the overall intention to deepen the excellent relations between the two states, in particular to focus on strengthening cooperation in the field of security and defense.”
According to the same joint note, Zelensky’s visit “will also be an opportunity to reaffirm Portugal’s commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as to maintaining political, military, financial and humanitarian support for Kyiv.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Sandra Hansen, a news website Author and Reporter for 24 News Reporters. I have over 7 years of experience in the journalism field, with an extensive background in politics and political science. My passion is to tell stories that are important to people around the globe and to engage readers with compelling content.