Chega Leader André Ventura against Corruption and Conflicts of Interest

The right-wing national party Chega came in third in the last legislative elections held in Portugal at the end of January 2022. It grew from 1 to 12 deputies in the National Assembly.

Party leader André Ventura has announced his intention to introduce a bill to fight corruption, which would end contracts between the State and members of the families of personalities belonging to the current government. 

André Ventura wants to make the fight against corruption one of the major axes of his policy.

As he explained to the press, his bill requires that “no family member up to the third degree of a member of the Government may have business with the State, in a first phase within the tutelage of the ministry itself.” With this initiative, the party wants to avoid “conflicts of interest.”

André Ventura’s strategy is to catch Prime Minister and Socialist leader Antonio Costa in his own trap, by forcing him to support the bill, as the latter has claimed to want to establish a strong ethical code of government practices. 

André Ventura presented his project during a meeting with the young activists of the European group, Identity and Democracy. He noted that the most popular causes were too often abandoned to the Left and needed to be taken over by right-wing parties. He accused political forces from the Left of leading a conscious offensive to drive out Portugal’s Christian heritage, and through it, any notion of normality. In the same speech, he also gave his support to the French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, arguing for change at the European level. 

André Ventura also stressed that corruption issues are European-wide problems. 

A few weeks ago, André Ventura expressed concern over possible reforms towards regionalisation in Portugal, fearing they would reinforce corruption in the country: “if today our struggle is already tremendous to tackle corruption in this country, I can’t imagine what it will be spread over dozens of new institutions in Portugal, be they regional parliaments, regional governments or regional advisors,” he explained. He called for a referendum to be held before going any further with regionalisation.