“Mariana Mortágua has put herself in this situation because she wanted to, nobody told her to go there. She knows and knew, because there was no way not to know, that it was an internationally prohibited war zone. She knew, because there was no way not to know, that there was a no-go zone that would not allow the boat she was on to pass,” he said.
The president of Chega described it as “pure irresponsibility” and “lack of common sense,” in addition to a “mere extreme-left circus act.”
André Ventura spoke to journalists in Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the Évora district, where he was attending a campaign event for the municipal elections on October 12.
The Chega leader accused the leader of BE of “abandoning the country,” considering that this choice “is legitimate, but it has costs.”
“Certainly some of her electorate will like it. Now, when it goes wrong, don’t come asking the Portuguese State to cover the failures of a trip that everyone knew could only end this way,” he stated.
“I don’t know what the Bloco de Esquerda wants, if they want Portugal to deploy military resources to the region, if they want to put us at war with any of the areas,” he remarked.
André Ventura expressed hope that the Bloc member “returns safely,” noting that the “Portuguese State has in its mission the protection of Portuguese citizens; Mariana Mortágua is Portuguese, and is now in a restricted situation, and this is a situation that the Portuguese State must take into account.”
But he questioned: “When this is over, who will pay for the costs we are incurring for Mariana Mortágua? Is she going to pay? Is she going to cover all the diplomatic, consular, protocol, transportation costs we now have, due to, frankly, an absurdity, an ego greater than the person herself.”
“I heard the President of the Republic say that obviously consular protection will apply, this is not in question. The issue is the lack of common sense of a party leader who abandons parliament, who abandons her obligations to the country, who gets into a situation she knows is a war zone,” he criticized.
The Chega leader also argued that “the humanitarian cause is not to get on a boat and head through the Mediterranean to Gaza,” nor “to be on a boat with groups linked to terrorists and with terrorists in the Mediterranean.”
“The humanitarian cause is ensuring that international agencies can deliver aid to those in need. The humanitarian cause is not theatrical antics in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean cause is allowing the countries around, notably the Arab countries, to provide help,” he maintained.
The spokesperson for the Italian group of activists participating in the humanitarian action “Global Sumud” (Global Resistance, in Arabic), Maria Elena Delia, stated today that 39 ships of the flotilla were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces, with some smaller ships still heading towards the Gaza Strip.
According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the crews were taken to the port of Ashdod and held in specific detention centers, where they could either accept immediate voluntary expulsion or reject it and await a judicial decision.
Among those detained are the deputy and Bloc leader, actress Sofia Aparício, and activist Miguel Duarte.
