Despite the public surprise, the Socialists were forced this Monday to explain through the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, why the government was present at the closing session of the V Chega convention in Santarém on Sunday.
“The red line we drew against Chega has not moved an inch,” assured Eurico Brilhante Dias, parliamentary leader of the Socialists. “With Chega nothing. With Chega only opposition. It is a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic discourse, which pits Portuguese against Portuguese. And if we compromise with this discourse, will we then let in a virus, which is a virus that puts the Portuguese against the Portuguese and destroying democracy,” he stressed, speaking to journalists in Porto, on the sidelines of a visit to Serralves.
“Total Distance”
Brilhante Dias justified the minister’s presence with the fulfillment of institutional responsibilities – and in this case “at great sacrifice”. “The government has institutional responsibilities to a party that has parliamentary representation and that has opposition rights, and that’s why the government was. And the minister, I think it’s impossible to be clearer than she was. Clear, that it had been hate speech and absolutely distanced itself from any interference.”
“What we see is what we will never defend, an expression of hatred, an expression of disrespect towards the Portuguese, an offensive expression of Portuguese against Portuguese.”
Ana Catarina Mendes left the Chega convention and even said that “what we heard here was an incitement to hatred”: “What we see is what we will never defend, a hate speech, a speech of disrespect for the Portuguese, a attack speech, from Portuguese against Portuguese”, he insisted, stating that “the government will continue to work as always to strengthen democracy, respect our institutions” and “maintain a strong social state, protecting everyone, those who are here and those who arrive here”. In other words, there is “total distance and no point of contact between the government and the Chega party”.
Despite the distance that the minister placed in relation to the event in which she had just participated, this did not prevent her from being severely criticized within the PS.
“normalizing” xenophobia.
Former PS MEP and former presidential candidate Ana Gomes – who also filed a lawsuit a few months ago to eradicate Chega – wrote on Twitter furiously: “I do not want to believe: a PS leader, even from above a member of the government, at the extreme right party congress Normalizing a racist, xenophobic, fascist party and against the CRP [Constituição da República Portuguesa]! I do not accept, I do not recognize this PS.”
“Big mistake”
Francisco Seixas da Costa, retired ambassador and former secretary of state for European affairs in the governments of António Guterres, is also said to believe, also on Twitter, that the presence of Ana Catarina Mendes at the Chega convention was “an immense mistake” and that “it would be good” if the socialist leadership recognized this, especially “after what was seen at the said meeting”. “Not always persisting in the traditional language of unrepentance, typical of power, is the solution,” the former ruler wrote.
Source: DN
