Chega pulls out of talks, ‘likely to vote against’ OE2025

Chega President André Ventura announced this Friday that the party is withdrawing from the negotiations on the 2025 state budget and that it will “in all likelihood vote against” the document.

Andre Ventura said he would inform the government “in an official note today that [o Chega] considers himself excluded from the negotiations” on the state budget and indicated that he “will most likely vote against” the document, guaranteeing that “nothing” will make him “change his mind.”

At a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Lisbon, Chegi’s leader said the decision was “irrevocable” and called on the government to negotiate with the PS, expressing hope that they could conclude “negotiations successfully.”

“I really hope that the secret talks between the PS and the SDP will bear fruit. They will at least guarantee that there will be no new political crisis in the coming months,” he said, believing that “part of the country does not want political crises, or other political crises, or unjustified provocations, or any scenario of instability.”

President Cegi justified his decision by stating that he was aware, based on “news of the last few days, but especially the last few hours,” of the supposed negotiations between the Socialists and the Social Democrats, and considered that “this is a betrayal of the right-wing electorate, and it is a betrayal of those who believed that the SDP and the CDU would govern, breaking the chain and cycle of socialist rule.”

“The government told us that there was no correspondence, no contact or any negotiations with the Socialist Party. The government lied to Chega and lied to Portugal, but above all, it lied to the Chega electorate, which I represent. So we do not negotiate with liars or traitors,” he said when asked to clarify.

When asked directly whether he knew about the existence of negotiations between the PS and the SDP, he replied: “If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t be here.”

The letter in question was sent by the Secretary General of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos, to Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, which provided “transparent information on the budgetary outlook” for 2024 and 2025, warning that “transparency and rigor” were fundamental for the negotiations on the state budget.

André Ventura believed that the government’s intention to negotiate with Chega was a “façade” because the executive did not have “a word to designate the only party that could make the state budget viable, excluding the Socialists.”

“Chega was conscientious in calling for a debate on the state budget, making proposals that will always excite non-socialist voters: lowering taxes on families, cutting bureaucracy in small and medium-sized companies, leading the country to growth, in light of what is happening to our main allies in Europe and America. It seems that the government is ready to give up all this for a positive vote or abstention from the Socialist Party,” he criticized.

“The government has always wanted and continues to want an agreement with the PS. The government of Luis Montenegro has always wanted and continues to want to govern the way the PS governed, to open up financial opportunities to get votes, without worrying about anything else,” he accused.

Ventura said that “from the fight against corruption to the protection of the security forces, from tax cuts to redefining the size of the state and its deputies – none of this was accepted by the PSD” and that this was because “shadow negotiations were already underway with the PS”.

President Chegi said he had made the decision “in the last few hours” and that he would now share it with the national organs of the party and with the President of the Republic at a hearing, where he asked Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to present him with his proposal for a referendum on immigration, which he called one of the conditions for the viability of the budget.