A televised debate on SIC between the former Chief of Naval Staff and the Left Bloc MEP highlighted significant disagreements over topics such as labor law revisions, health and fiscal systems, and defense investments.
The term “an ocean of differences” was introduced by Henrique Gouveia e Melo at the start of the debate to align Catarina Martins with the Left Bloc’s “partisan logic.”
“You have one foot here and another in Brussels, potentially ready to retreat. You view the Constitution asymmetrically, claiming that if Chega won the elections, you would try to prevent them from forming a government at all costs. It is a sophisticated declination of Marxism-Leninism,” he stated.
Contrarily, as he had in a previous debate, he presented his candidacy as “suprapartisan and independent.”
“I firmly stand my ground here, without any retreat, and for 45 years, I have defended the Constitution — and I will continue to defend it. I stand for the market, free initiative, and private property,” he asserted.
Catarina Martins, responding minutes later, pointed out Gouveia e Melo’s recent lunch with Chega’s president, André Ventura, organized by a “tycoon.”
“No one can diminish me for being elected. I was elected because of popular trust, and no one can diminish me for the choices I make,” replied the former Left Bloc coordinator and current MEP.
Regarding whether or not to give power to a Chega government, the MEP clarified she would not spend the campaign “discussing the empowerment of a far-right government.”
“That would be absurd. I am here to defend freedom, not to engage in discussions about André Ventura’s authoritarian fantasies or his antics. I will always scrupulously adhere to the Constitution,” she concluded.
