CHEGA leader André Ventura made political capital out of names of foreign children in Lisbon school
The truly distasteful political stunt by CHEGA leader André Ventura earlier this month in which he read out a list of children enrolled at a Lisbon school – none of whom had Portuguese names – is now the subject of an inquiry by the national data protection commission.
This stunt, which prompted outrage among political benches – even seeing one MP in tears – smacked, leader writers remarked afterwards, of the fascist persecution of minorities before the last World War.
In the hurly burly of criticism, it became clear that no-one on the CHEGA bench was even sure that the list was correct: they had simply received it, by email. They didn’t even know which school the children were enrolled in.
André Ventura’s point was that these ‘non-Portuguese children’ were given preference for places in school over Portuguese children. This has proved to be a groundless assertion – but the uproar prompted by his rattling off children’s names in the ‘house of democracy’ has led to a number of complaints to the data protection commission, hence its decision to open an inquiry.
Reports explain that “if the complaints are upheld as a violation of the general data protection regime”, then CHEGA “may have to pay a fine”.
No media outlet has explained what the penalty might be if the list is found to be completely bogus – like the point Mr Ventura was trying to make off the back of it.
For now, André Ventura has reacted in astonishment to the inquiry, alleging “political persecution”. This is all “absurd”, in his opinion: “Only a country that has nothing else to do, only a country that doesn’t care about corruption, or regulating immigration, or the crime on the streets, cares about persecuting MPs…”
“Chega will continue to name whoever it wants, whenever it wants, whenever it wants to defend the Portuguese and whenever it wants to defend our values, namely the fight against uncontrolled corruption and crime,” he added.
source: LUSA/ SIC Notícias
