“I am confident that I will win the presidential elections in the first round, and I am convinced that I will also win the presidential elections in the first round here in the Autonomous Region of Madeira,” stated André Ventura.
Ventura addressed journalists in the municipality of São Vicente, in the northern part of Madeira, where he attended the inauguration of the new municipal executive, led by Chega, which secured an absolute majority in the local elections on October 12, defeating the PSD/CDS-PP coalition that previously governed the municipality.
“I truly want to win the Autonomous Region of Madeira,” he declared, highlighting that the archipelago has yielded “great results” for the party, which prompted his return to the island during the electoral campaign.
André Ventura explained that by saying Portugal needs “three Salazares,” a phrase used in a recent interview on SIC, he intended to emphasize the need for a firm hand to bring order to the country.
“What I meant to say was that the country needs to be put in order and it needs a firm hand to do so, and I am that firm hand that the country needs,” he asserted.
The presidential candidate also commented that voting for other candidates would leave “everything the same.”
“If you want everything to remain the same and continue in the same lethargy, vote for the other candidates,” he stated, emphasizing, “Anyone who wants to continue with the same justice system, security measures, and fight against corruption, frankly, should not vote for me.”
André Ventura stressed that he wants to be an “interventionist president” with a “firm hand” to “send a message to the Republic.”
“If you want the opposite, you have the other candidates. That’s what I meant by ‘we need three Salazares,'” he explained.
Ventura further noted that even his grandmother used this expression, considering it “very popular” to allude to the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar given the “disorder and chaos” in which the country finds itself.
