Chega MPs walk out of plenary session in protest against Santos Silva

Chegi’s parliamentary group walked out of the plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic on Tuesday in protest against statements by the parliament’s president suggesting that the presence of party deputies at a pro-housing demonstration on Saturday was an “act of provocation.”

At the beginning of the plenary session, the leader of Chegi asked to speak to accuse Augusto Santos Silva of not uttering “a single word of condemnation for actions that in any other country, with any other deputies, would deserve unequivocal condemnation.” “.

On Saturday, Chega’s delegation, which included three party deputies – Rui Paulo Sousa, Filipe Melo and Jorge Galveias – was escorted by public security police (PSP) from the site of a demonstration for housing and climate justice in Lisbon. , after protests from participants.

Andre Ventura believes Tuesday was an opportunity for Santos Silva to “correct his position” and “tell the country and parliament that violence is never acceptable under any circumstances.”

“If you cannot do this, it is because you, Mr. President, are not the president of all the deputies, it is because you are not the president of all the members of this parliament,” he said, citing a recent statement by Santos Silva, who response to the paint attack on the Minister of the Environment considered that “attacking people, whoever they are, depriving them of the opportunity to speak is always a reprehensible act.”

In his response, Santos Silva reiterated that “violence is always reprehensible” and that in a democratic regime “it is illegal”, but stressed that “so that democratic coexistence can be established and take place under the normal conditions provided for by the Constitution and the law.” demand,” it is also necessary that there be no “provocative acts.”

“We must respect demonstrations whose organizers, motives and goals are very far from ours. We must know how to respect, because this is a condition of democratic coexistence: neither to obstruct other demonstrations, nor to interfere with protests or demonstrations that obviously have nothing to do with us,” he said.

Santos Silva referred to Chega’s recent demonstration in front of the PS national headquarters, mentioning that the rest of the parties refrain from “provoking, proposing violence or unlawful acts” in the face of actions called for by Chega, including when “they come through the door from the headquarters other political parties.”

“This is what distinguishes democratic speech and debate from speech and debate that lives only by creating incidents and apologizing for hate, because hate is the opposite of democratic debate,” he said.

Referring to the expression “coward” that Andre Ventura used on Monday at a press conference to qualify him, Santos Silva felt that the Chegi leader lacked the “courage” to repeat it in plenary, also leaving him with criticism: “Your Excellency always You must remember that when you see me, you do not see yourself in the mirror.”

After this intervention, Ventura again asked to speak to deny that it was a provocation, saying that the Chega deputies were invited by the platform that organized the demonstration – something the organizers refused to Antena 1 radio – and criticized Santos Silva.

“Mr. President, my President is no more, he is no longer sitting on this bench, he is no longer from any part of the country and I do not recognize him as President of the Assembly of the Republic and I am leaving, that is why I am here,” he said , and then the entire Chegi board left the plenary session.

The absence of the Chega deputies meant that they did not participate in the debate, which they themselves had planned and at which the draft resolution on housing presented by the party would be discussed.

This initiative was not presented, and another draft resolution presented by PAN, which was drawn into the Chegi plan, was discussed.

While the debate was going on, several Chega deputies who were absent from the plenary session took the initiative at the Campo de Ourique, which had been scheduled since Monday and at which press statements were planned.

On Saturday, Chega deputies Rui Paulo Sousa, Filipe Melo and Jorge Galveyas arrived at the Alameda D. Afonso Henriques in Lisbon at 15:00, where a demonstration for the right to housing was taking place, and soon after they were received by several people shouting “racists, fascists, they won’t pass,” they shouted at the deputies and demanded that they leave.

The protesters gathered around the deputies, as a result of which the PSP rapid response team surrounded the parliamentarians, forming a security cordon in which they were removed from the demonstration site.