Liberal initiative from one side (vote in favour); and PSD for the remainder (abstention). This time, unlike what happened when she submitted her first motion of censure from this legislature in July 2022, Chega will not be completely isolated as the only party that voted in favor of its own initiative: it will have the Liberal initiative at its side to have. , votes in favor. The PSD will continue where it was at the time, in the position of abstention. And the motion will ultimately have the expected fate: it will fail, with votes against the majority of PS, PCP, BE and Livre. The PAN had not yet announced a voting direction by the end of Thursday afternoon
The debate (and vote) should take place on the 19th (Tuesday). Last Thursday, the chairman of the PSD met with his deputies and finally announced that the party will choose the route of abstention – as it had already done when discussing, in January 2023, a motion of censure submitted by the Liberal Initiative. .
Montenegro viewed Chega’s initiative as “childish and childish”. “We are not the party of motions, we are the party of solutions,” he told MPs, according to Lusa reports.
“Parliamentary Games”
At the end of the meeting, in statements to journalists, he reiterated that Chega’s motion “is useless” and emphasized that the PSD’s priority is the “life of the Portuguese” and not “parliamentary games”. “The parliamentary group is absolutely coherent and there was consensus on this reading that the party focuses on people’s real concerns,” he assured.
For the leader of the PSD, this is an ‘improvement motion’, which ‘does neither good nor harm’ and will even temporarily relieve the government ‘when the majority stands up to vote against’.
However, IL is now changing the voting direction, from abstaining (in the motion of censure presented by Chega in July 2022) to voting in favor.
Speaking to Lusa, Patrícia Gilvaz opined that Chega’s motion of censure “is a communication and diversionary maneuver” that will “only give rise to the PS”. But the party cannot “ignore the socio-economic context of the country and the continued and growing deterioration of the country’s situation”: “IL has been on the side of the Portuguese, here too we cannot stop to side with the Portuguese.”
André Ventura, from Chega, reacted offended to the PSD’s announcement that the vote will be abstention (which is the same vote as compared to the July 2022 motion submitted by the same party and the motion of censure presented by IL in January 2023 ).
“Cowards will always remain cowards! The country is in this state and the PSD is worried about being the walking stick of the PS!”, the Chega leader wrote in a note published yesterday on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday, Ventura began anticipating his response on the same social network: “Now let’s see who really wants to change government, or who talks a lot but is always ready to be the stick of the socialists!”
Source: DN
