During a visit to the Agroglobal fair in Santarém, Ventura announced he had sent a proposal to the office of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, aimed at providing a signal of political stability to the country and indicating “there are conditions for a shift to the right.”
“Chega wants to be a guarantee of trust and stability. We do not want to witness the yearly drama where the budget might fail and the Government too,” he stated, emphasizing that the party is open to negotiations but not to “being a puppet or a crutch, like CDS or Liberal Initiative.”
Among Chega’s demands are a structural increase in pensions, tax reductions for businesses, and concrete measures for the agricultural sector, especially in combating water shortages and fires.
Ventura also criticized the Government’s handling of forest fires, accusing the executive of being “absent” and managing the fire crisis “disastrously.”
Regarding labor legislation, the Chega leader opposed any reform that involves the loss of rights, particularly in the areas of gestational mourning and breastfeeding, and advocated a “balance” between worker protection and economic dynamism.
“The country needs more birth rates, solid and qualified workers. We cannot be a country of precariousness,” he said, adding that Chega would not accept reforms that “attack Portuguese mothers” or “turn the labor market into a jungle.”
Ventura expressed willingness to engage in dialogue with the Government, even beyond the budget scope, but warned that “if the major labor reform involves stripping rights from mothers or facilitating indiscriminate dismissals, there is no path forward.”
The visit to Agroglobal also included criticisms of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, whom Ventura accused of making “over 1,500 trips at the taxpayer’s expense,” including what he deemed “unnecessary” visits to exhibitions or festivals.
When asked about his opposition to the President’s trip to Germany and his mistake in referring to it as a “hamburger festival” when it was actually a citizenship event, André Ventura blamed the error on a poor translation on the parliamentary voting sheet but maintained his criticism of the head of state for, allegedly, undertaking unnecessary trips at taxpayer expense.
“The President of the Republic should make as few trips as possible. Taxpayers are not there to fund tours,” he said, further accusing SIC of doing a “terrible service to democracy” by allegedly failing to sufficiently scrutinize the head of state.
