Chega failed yesterday, for the third time in this legislature, in the objective of electing a vice president of the Assembly of the Republic. It was an election doomed from the start – if only by the power of the absolute majority of the PS. However, this time a new fact occurred, compared to the other two previous elections: from the PSD came directly from the party leader, Luís Montenegro, and then passed on to the deputies by the head of the bank, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, an indication of the deputies “orange” – 77 in total – to vote for Chega’s candidate (this time deputy Rui Paulo Sousa).
However, the results confirm that much of the PSD bench – all elected in Rui Rio’s time – ignored the party leadership’s request. If the Chega deputy’s candidacy had won the parties to the right of the PS, he would have received 97 votes in favour: 12 from Chega, eight from the Liberal Initiative (where there was freedom to vote) and 77 from the PSD.
As it turns out, Rui Paulo Sousa only got 64 favorable votes — that is, he was more than 30 votes away from his maximum voting potential (and needed at least 116 to be elected). While there may have been a blank vote from the eight IL deputies, the final result indicates that a significant portion of the “orange” bench ignored Montenegro’s request. There were a total of 137 blank votes and 12 invalid votes, in an election in which 213 of the 230 delegates took part. The Chega candidate was left with the satisfaction that he had received almost twice as many favorable votes from the first Chega candidate for vice president of the AR (Diogo Pacheco de Amorim, 35 votes in favour) and the second (Gabriel Mithá Ribeiro, 37 votes) in favour).
Luís Montenegro justified the party’s turnaround in the name of “normality of the democratic regime”, rejecting the idea of revealing his party’s approach to André Ventura’s party. “It has nothing to do with any political approach, with any kind of political affinity, but with respect for institutions, democracy and the will of the people. It is to meet what democracy demands from representatives of the people. PCP candidates, BE, CDS. He did it out of respect for the people, for the choices of the people,” he said.
The PSD leader also recalled that since April 25, the board of the Assembly of the Republic “is composed of a president and four vice presidents who represent the four largest political forces with parliamentary representation – those whom the people wanted to elect”. “I have advised the parliamentary group to vote in favor of Chega’s proposal for this place and the same with regard to IL [que não apresentou candidatura]. We have the same goal regarding the two candidatures,” he added.
PS spoke of “sad day for democracy”. “Today’s decision by the PPD/PSD national leadership, whose first leader is Luís Montenegro, aligns well with where the right in Portugal is going: there are no red lines against far-right anti-democracy, there are no red lines for those who give speeches xenophobes, racists, there are no red lines for those who try to introduce punishments in the criminal code that violate human dignity,” said PS MP Eurico Brilhante Dias.
Source: DN
