“It’s one case after another”, says the Chega leader
André Ventura, the polarising leader of Portugal’s far-right party Chega, has linked the country’s increasing cases of violent crimes on its Roma gypsy community.
In the first parliamentary debate after the summer break, Ventura referred to the horrific triple homicide that took place on Wednesday in Penha de França, Lisbon, to blame the government “for doing nothing” to tackle rising crime and for the Roma community “continuing to go unpunished”.
“I would like to express my deep regret that the Roma community continues to go unpunished in Portugal. It’s one case after another, while the country falls asleep and turns away, without realising that there is a real problem that needs to be solved,” he said.
For the president of Chega, a “tough hand against crime” is needed.
“What does the government intend to do to so that our streets don’t become an unnecessary “far-west”, with crimes in broad daylight, with blood dripping down our streets? It’s time to get tough on crime – and that’s what we expect this government to do,” he added.
Next, the Chega leader argued that violent crime is growing in Portugal by around 5%, which then led Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to clarify that, on this specific point, the government’s concern is common.
However, the government leader distanced himself from Ventura, pointing out that the difference is that the government “doesn’t look at who commits crimes by community or ethnic group”.
“We don’t want impunity for anyone,” he said.
Luís Montenegro assumed that crime must be fought and repressed, with more policing, more investigation and “with the hand that the courts can assert, because the independence of the courts is a supreme value in democracy”.
In the final part of the debate between the two, André Ventura argued that “those who commit crimes have a way out, the street door”, and Portugal is experiencing “a migratory wave like never before in history”.
On this point, the prime minister countered that there had been a decrease in applications for residence in Portugal since his government ended the expression of interest regime.
“We have a team, a mission structure resolving 400,000 pending issues. This doesn’t mean legalising 400,000 immigrants, it means resolving 400,000 pending issues, identifying who the people are and whether they meet the conditions to stay in Portugal,” he declared.
Source: LUSA
