Allegation: “Immigrants threaten Ventura” and deputy advocates for their expulsion
On Sunday, July 6, the President of Chega shared on social media a video featuring an Indian citizen aboard an airplane with the caption “André Ventura, we are about to arrive,” to which André Ventura responded, “if it depends on me, they will soon be leaving,” followed by three airplane icons. These posts accumulated over 1.1 million views on X and Instagram.
This video had circulated on X in April on various accounts with racist and xenophobic content, viewing the images as a threat to Chega’s leader, garnering more than 276,000 views, as well as on other platforms like Reddit.
Se depender de mim, também estarão prestes a sair ️️️ pic.twitter.com/1z19xNvS12
— André Ventura (@AndreCVentura) July 6, 2025
Facts: the video is a ‘meme’ created from footage of a trip between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia
A series of reverse searches of some video frames revealed that the video was posted on April 24 by an Instagram account claiming to post ‘the best Portuguese memes’ and that there are other humorous or xenophobic versions in English, Arabic, and German, without references to Portugal.
It also became evident that the version shared by André Ventura is a copy of another posted the previous day by a different Instagram account, which already has 1.6 million views.
Examining that account on Monday revealed that the author, Dayson Majestade, was posting a series of critical responses to the deputy, labeling him “opportunistic” for using the ‘meme’ “just to fuel hatred in his audience” without understanding the context of the images and the flight’s destination.
The same research process led to the identification of the original video posted on TikTok on January 6, by a Bangladeshi citizen, which has garnered over 3.5 million views, where the only word in the original video description is ‘Medina,’ the Saudi city that is one of the principal sacred sites for Muslims.
An analysis of Kuddus Monir’s channel, whose motto is ‘my religion is to dedicate myself to the welfare of humanity,’ shows other videos of the flight and visit to Medina, Saudi Arabia, particularly to the Prophet’s Mosque. However, it did not establish any connection of that trip or that Bangladeshi with Portugal.
Contradictory
Lusa Verifica attempted to contact Kuddus Monir but received no response. However, they spoke with Dayson Majestade, who was surprised at the abusive use made of his ‘meme.’ “Everyone knows that Ventura hates immigrants and takes advantage of any video to cultivate hatred among his audience, but I didn’t expect him to use that ‘meme’ to get likes, shares, and prejudiced comments.”
The young man explains that “those who follow [his] page know that the content is ‘memes'” and that he jokes “about everything, whether black, white, immigrants, etc.” “That is a sarcastic ‘meme’ because we all know that [immigrants] are not welcome in the country. So I made it with that caption and that background music,” explains Dayson Majestade, 28, currently living in London.
Lusa Verifica also questioned Deputy André Ventura and one of his advisors about the video’s source, whether he knows the identity of the person filming or the real context of the images, as well as if he has authorization to distribute the video on social networks, but received no response.
Lusa Verifica Evaluation: False
It is false that the video shared by Deputy André Ventura and accounts promoting racism and xenophobia constitutes any type of warning to Chega’s leader or to Portugal. In fact, it is merely a ‘meme’ made from a personal video by a Bangladeshi citizen who shared images of an airplane trip to Medina, Saudi Arabia.
