The former leader of the Liberal Initiative (IL) Diogo Prates, who headed the list of the Setúbal circle in the 2019 parliamentary elections, joined Chega a few weeks after being one of the 25 members of the party led by Rui Rocha, who announced their exit on November 25, accusing IL of having “become a caricature of what it proposed in 2019”.
Speaking to DN, Diogo Prates justified his loyalty to the party led by André Ventura by being “fully convinced that Chega is the party that has the best conditions to remove the PS from power” and “a consistent and to offer a quality alternative”. On the contrary, the signatory of the document “This is not what we were promised”, which also announced the departure of former National Councilors Diogo Saramago Ferreira and Nuno Carrasqueira, believes that IL “is more part of the problem than the solution”.
Diogo Prates, doctor by profession, joined IL “mainly thanks to” former president (and current deputy) Carlos Guimarães Pinto, who headed the territorial centers of Almada and Setúbal and became head of the Setúbal Circle list in 2019 . After the 2022 parliamentary elections, with João Cotrim Figueiredo at the head of the party, he moved to the bottom of the list – from which Joana Cordeiro was elected to the Assembly of the Republic – after rejecting the invitation to become head of the party had rejected. the list for Évora.
The option to join Chega was taken by the doctor, to whom “politics has never been indifferent”, based on an assessment in which, in addition to the leadership of André Ventura, “the people who are in the party” were decisive . “Anyone who has the impression that Chega is a one-man party is completely wrong,” says Diogo Prates, who counters that IL is currently “in the hands of a small group”.
Diogo Prates assures that he is ready “to help with Chega’s program and lists”, “if they want”, although he says that he will not be “offended” if this does not happen, and anticipates the reaction to possible criticism of his side. former party. “I am the same person and it was IL who changed,” he says, describing Rui Rocha’s leadership as “sectarian”. “In the Portuguese political panorama I only find parallels with the PCP,” says the doctor.
Diogo Prates is the second former IL leader to join Chega in recent weeks, after former national councilor Nuno Simões de Melo, who was seen as the leader of the Liberals’ most conservative wing, made the same decision on November 25.
Source: DN
