Chega criticizes presidency for ‘acting on the threshold of legality’ and ‘continuous boycott’ of PKI

Chega President André Ventura criticized the Presidency of the Republic this Wednesday for acting “on the threshold of legality” by hiding “fundamental elements”, saying that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa seemed to have adopted “a position of permanent boycott” of the PCI.

At a press conference at the party’s national headquarters in Lisbon, Chegi’s leader said that the President of the Republic’s submission of new elements to the commission investigating the case of the unborn twins was “on the threshold of legality.”

“Because it hid from Parliament, the Attorney General’s Office and the administrative structures created for this purpose fundamental elements for analyzing the decision-making process,” said André Ventura.

The President of Chega mentioned a new set of “emails” which, according to information provided by morning Post and RTP, were delivered to CPI on July 25 and were not included in the original submission.

It was these messages that caused a moment of tension between the Chega leader and Maria João Ruela, the presidential adviser, after André Ventura accused the adviser of lying to the commission of inquiry, saying she was unaware of an alleged “email” notifying her of the case and what to do, which would not have been sent to parliament.

“Don’t accuse me of lying, I think my honor is affected,” Ruela responded, believing that the deputy “wanted to make up a story.”

For Andre Ventura, the revelation of these “emails” “is a warning sign (…) that it is not enough to sit back and wait for the elements to strike, that it is not enough to accept uncritically and passively everything they send” and that it is necessary to “conduct your own investigation.”

The Chega leader also stated that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa adheres to what he believes to be the current and previous governments’ “position of permanent boycott” of the PKI’s work.

Ventura also called on all government agencies involved in the case to “revise what they said and did to find any ’emails’ that CPI does not already have and to be able to avoid ‘new situations of omission.'”

He also insisted that the party would once again propose to the CPI that the President of the Republic, as well as the Ministry of Health, provide “all the elements at their disposal in this matter.”

“When we say ‘everything’, we mean everyone. All communications within our existing legal framework, all administrative acts, all subpoenas, all ‘e-mails’, regardless of whether they were discovered in the first stage, must be delivered to this body. The country, and above all this commission of inquiry, can understand how this treatment was carried out,” he said.