“I am announcing here that this Monday we will submit a new proposal for the Government to reject ‘chat control’. I want to see how PSD and Chega vote this time,” stated Mariana Leitão in Albufeira, Algarve.
The ‘chat control’ involves monitoring messaging communication platforms aimed, according to the European Union, at combating online child sexual abuse.
During a roughly 30-minute speech at the dinner rally marking the political resurgence of Iniciativa Liberal, Mariana Leitão focused her criticism on the Government, pointing out failures in wildfire management, housing, and the inability to advance with structural reforms.
“As if all the chronic failures of the State were not enough, we now see an even greater threat: the State trying to impose itself on our most basic freedom,” said Mariana Leitão.
Addressing an audience of about a hundred party members, the IL leader highlighted the proposal by PSD and Chega, which would allow the Polícia Judiciária “to censor content on the Internet without the intervention of a judge.”
“We’ve seen this in other countries: under the guise of fighting terrorism, they establish swift censorship mechanisms enforced by the police. Powers to delete or block online content without prior judicial authorization,” she pointed out.
According to Mariana Leitão, the Government “chose to politicize justice, opting for a police force under governmental control instead of independent courts, unlike other countries.”
“If we hand over that power to a police force under Government control, we open the door to a digital police state with powers for abuse,” she emphasized.
Mariana Leitão accused PSD and Chega of joining forces “to flagrantly violate freedom of expression in Portugal.”
“The Government’s proposal has already entered the Assembly of the Republic to be discussed and voted on and will deserve our strongest opposition and repudiation,” she warned.
For the leader of Iniciativa Liberal, there is also “chat control,” another attack on freedom of expression and privacy, also facilitated in Portugal by PSD and Chega, recalling that Iniciativa Liberal opposed this mechanism from the start.
According to Mariana Leitão, “the State fails in basic functions, cannot prevent fires, does not ensure decent childcare, health or education, but is quick to invent forces to control people’s lives, even in what they write and share on the Internet.”
The IL leader also advocated for a reform in the public administration and the state-owned sector, announcing that the party has a clear proposal: “A thorough evaluation of public administration.”
“Not to pretend to change, but to identify who performs and who fails, who serves the citizens and who merely occupies a place. After this evaluation, to dismiss those who are unnecessary, who block processes, who live in the shadow of inertia,” she emphasized.
According to Mariana Leitão, “it is also in the state-owned sector where one sees the same irresponsibility, with companies going years without presenting reports and accounts, living outside the rules.”
“Iniciativa Liberal has a clear position, and for this reason, we will introduce this proposal in the next State Budget: public companies that do not present reports and accounts must be dissolved,” she concluded.
