Luís Montenegro addressed an audience of young people in Porto as part of the AD (PSD/CDS-PP coalition) campaign to mark Europe Day.
In response to a question from JSD leader João Pedro Louro about the dangers of misinformation, the Prime Minister recounted an incident from a Sunday debate with all party leaders. Afterwards, social media comments pointed out that there was notable attention on his decision not to greet Chega leader André Ventura inside the television studio.
“Following that, the Chega leaders made a point of it: ‘What a shame, he’s rude, lacks democratic respect,'” Montenegro mentioned, adding humorously.
Montenegro clarified that he had greeted Ventura “twenty seconds before” entering the studio, having met him while exiting the makeup area. He did not find it necessary to repeat the gesture and did not anticipate, nor did he believe Ventura anticipated, the “fuss” that ensued.
“A few days later, it was a Chega deputy, Rita… What is her name? Rita Matias. And ‘so-and-so’ Frazão who took to igniting social media. I can’t believe André Ventura didn’t inform them otherwise,” he expressed.
He added, “The serious issue here is that we are talking about Members of Parliament, equipped with accurate information, using a perception to deliberately create waves of reactions based on ‘fake news,'” he criticized.
“If they can do this with a minor detail, imagine what they might do with matters of state, governance issues, and topics affecting people. This is also at stake in the decision on the 18th,” he warned.
