MP Pedro Pinto will run again for the leadership of the Chega Parliamentary Group, André Ventura announced today, indicating that MPs Pedro Pessanha, Manuela Tender and Bruno Nunes will chair the parliamentary committees assigned to the party.
“We’re going to keep MP Pedro Pinto as the leader of the caucus,” the Chega president told reporters during a visit to Sagalexpo, an event dedicated to the export of Portuguese food products, in Lisbon.
André Ventura indicated that “there will be new vice-presidents”, but he left the announcement of these names until later.
The elections for the Chega caucus will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Pedro Pinto, elected by the Faro constituency, has been leader of the Chega caucus since 2022, the year in which the party obtained a parliamentary group for the first time, with the election of 12 deputies.
In the last parliamentary term, Rui Paulo Sousa and Bruno Nunes were vice-presidents of the Chega Parliamentary Group.
Today, the Chega president also indicated that deputy Bruno Nunes will chair the Local Government Committee, deputy Manuela Tender (ex-PSD, elected by Vila Real), will chair the Education Committee and deputy Pedro Pessanha will chair the Defense Committee.
André Ventura confirmed to journalists that the activity of the party’s Facebook page was restricted for a period of 10 years.
The Chega leader considered the situation to be “particularly serious” and announced that the party would “take legal action against Meta”, as it believes that “this is absolutely disproportionate, illegal, without any justification and with very significant damage”.
“We’re planning to launch one of the biggest actions ever against a technology company in Portugal and also, if there’s support for it, we’ll try to launch a discussion in parliament about the freedom of expression that has to exist on these platforms,” he said.
Ventura also said that he wants to call to parliament “the representatives of Meta in Portugal”, with whom the party is in contact, to “explain the reasons for this restriction”.
At the time, the Chega leader was also asked about the political situation in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which is going to elections on May 26, and said that “I would be very disappointed if Chega/Madeira were to have any kind of rapprochement with Miguel Albuquerque’s government”.
“What I hope is that Chega will have a great result in Madeira, but the PSD/Madeira will not count on Chega for a government,” André Ventura assured, indicating that “the left will not either”.
