Chega’s president said it was “outrageous” that the PSD applauded “Lula da Silva’s April 25 presence in Portugal” after the Social Democrats criticized the Brazilian president over the war in Ukraine last Sunday.
“It is scandalous to see a party that should be leading the centre-right say that it welcomes Lula da Silva’s presence in Portugal on April 25, the day of the democratic conquest,” André Ventura said in a statement sent by Chega. video. to editors.
In the video, Chega’s president confirmed that the party “will even organize the biggest demonstration ever against a foreign dignitary in Portugal”, mobilizing “Portuguese and Brazilians, all those who want to join, to show that the centre-right and the Portuguese right is not the PSD, they are not this PSD”.
André Ventura defended that Lula da Silva should be condemned for his “proximity to Russia”, for his “inability to see the suffering of the Ukrainian people”, for “his proximity to China”, for his “hesitancy in condemning South American dictatorships”. and for “corruption”, although the decisions condemning the Brazilian president in this area were annulled due to procedural errors and irregularities.
PSD vice president Paulo Rangel this Sunday urged the government to “take a public and formal position” delineating itself from the Brazilian president’s statements that the European Union, NATO and the US are encouraging war in Ukraine.
Emphasizing the “fundamental importance” of Lula da Silva’s “timely and useful” visit to Portugal, within a few days, and ensuring that the PSD will do everything to make it a “success” and strengthen the common ties between the two countries, Paulo Rangel believed that António Costa “needs to take a public and formal position” in light of “repeated positions taken by the Brazilian state, through its Supreme Magistrate”.
The leader of the liberal initiative, Rui Rocha, also defended that the Assembly of the Republic “cannot receive an ally of Putin like Lula on April 25”, recalling that in the same parliament, the president of Ukraine spoke via video conference.
The presence in parliament of the President of Brazil – who is visiting Portugal between April 22 and 25 – has been shrouded in controversy since Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho spoke explicitly in February in a speech by Lula da Silva at the session of the April revolution in the Assembly of the Republic, which marked the unprecedented character, which the opposition of PSD, IL and Chega deserved.
In the end, Parliament decided that – rather than an intervention by the President of Brazil at the annual solemn commemoration session – it would hold a separate welcome session on the same day during Lula da Silva’s state visit to Portugal.
On Saturday, at the end of a visit to China, Brazil’s president defended that “the United States should stop encouraging war” in Ukraine and that “the European Union should start talking about peace”.
Source: DN
