In Guimarães, Braga district, during a visit to the Deucalion supercomputer, Mariana Mortágua highlighted that Marine Le Pen “was judged and convicted,” whereas the case involving Montenegro’s family business “is of a political nature.”
“Therefore, I would separate the cases for the sake of the quality of our democracy,” she stated.
On Monday, Marine Le Pen, former president of the National Rally (RN, in its French acronym) and current leader of the party’s parliamentary group in the French National Assembly, was sentenced by the Paris Court to four years in prison, two of which are non-suspended and subject to electronic monitoring, fined 100,000 euros, and declared ineligible for five years.
Le Pen and eight French MEPs from the National Rally were found guilty of embezzling public funds from the European Parliament.
On the same day, Chega leader André Ventura compared Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to Marine Le Pen, arguing that politicians under suspicion should not run for public office again.
“If we have a leader, or a politician, or a former prime minister, or a prime minister suspected of enriching themselves while in office, suspected of diverting money, […] then they cannot run again, whether in Portugal, France, Italy, or Germany,” he said.
For Mariana Mortágua, “each case is unique,” and a distinction needs to be made.
“Marine Le Pen was investigated by the European Parliament for non-compliance with party funding rules according to the European Parliament’s rules. She was then also convicted in France, leading to the issued sentence. She was judged and sentenced. We can have opinions about her, but there is a French judicial sentence,” the leader of the bloc stated.
In contrast, Montenegro’s case, she added, is “political.”
“As far as we know, there is an ongoing investigation, we don’t know any details about this investigation, and there are explanations that the prime minister has not wanted to give, which are of a political nature,” she noted.
Therefore, she urged Montenegro “to clarify what needs to be clarified” but emphasized that she hopes the campaign will primarily focus on discussing issues such as the digital economy, housing, and rent limits.
