New case follows slew of disgraces for CHEGA
Another day, another high-ranking CHEGA delegate in the headlines for all the wrong reasons: this time the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl.
Coming so hot-on-the-heels on revelations over a CHEGA councillor in Lisbon accused of the prostitution of a 15-year-old boy; a CHEGA MP representing the Azores accused of stealing people’s suitcases in airports, a CHEGA councillor allegedly threatening a rival with death, and a regional MP caught driving under the influence of a large quantity of alcohol, these latest allegations have been hotly denied by the MP, and current president of the party’s Lisbon district.
Pedro Pessanha claims to be the victim of a cabal, and says he has already presented complaints for defamation (one of which has already been archived).
This latest pummelling for the party refers to a complaint filed two years ago against Mr Pessanha by the parents of the 15-year-old girl.
According to an exclusive in Jornal de Notícias today, public prosecutors have been investigating the allegations ever since.
Mr Pessanha has not been officially ‘notified’ by authorities – and thus his lawyer suggests this is all another complaint to tarnish his client’s name, and by association presumably, the reputation of the party itself.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, CHEGA leader André Ventura went so far as to insinuate that his party is being “persecuted” by the nation’s media.
It does not help that reports have cited Mr Pessanha was a former brother-in-law of Nuno Pardal Ribeiro, the CHEGA councillor who faces accusations of paying a teenage boy for oral sex.
And if all this has not been enough, today the buzz over both social and national media centres on ‘off-mike’ remarks made about a blind member of parliament by the CHEGA bench. All parties have registered their disgust at the rudeness and lack of decorum displayed. At a point where the far-right, on a European level, seeks to become the ‘new normal’ in Brussels, it looks like the far-right in Portugal is a very long way from this position on its own territory.
