The leaders of PCP and Chega exchanged several criticisms this Friday and brought the times of PREC and the ‘troika’ to the legislative debate, in a face-to-face that marked differences in the proposals for housing or immigration.
“We can be here proposing anything and everything, but there is a story that André Ventura also knows well. During those dark times of the ‘troika’, during the time of pension cuts, salary cuts, benefit cuts of Natal, during the biggest tax increase in memory in our country, deputy André Ventura was applauding those options”, said the general secretary of the PCP, when the topic was pensions.
During the debate between Paulo Raimundo and André Ventura, within the scope of the legislative elections on March 10, on CNN Portugal, the president of Chega and former militant and leader of the PSD stated that at the time he was neither a deputy nor a governor, asking the communist that “be serious”.
“It was the same as me saying, Paulo Raimundo, when he was the PREC, was in the PCP, therefore he is responsible for this, for the nationalizations, for the expropriations, for the murders. […] When there was the 25th of April and it was the PREC, you killed people, expropriated them, do you think it’s nice for me to enter this debate with you like this? I’m sure of what I’m saying”, said, further on, André Ventura.
Faced with this response, the secretary general of the PCP asked the president of Chega to be “trying to make his statements”, which led Ventura to ask if “it’s a threat” and to say that he “thought those times had already passed”.
The leader of Chega also accused the PCP of not being democratic and Paulo Raimundo said he was proud that the communists did not follow in parliament “any of the measures that Chega presented, whatever they were”.
In this debate, the differences between the proposals of the two parties were also visible, particularly in the area of housing, with Chega defending that the State could be “the guarantor”, guarantor, of entry into the purchase of housing, as well as an exemption from IRS for young people up to 100 thousand euros in income.
The PCP proposed the provision of 50 thousand public heritage homes over the next four years, between new construction and rehabilitation.
Regarding immigration, André Ventura defended greater border control, while Paulo Raimundo pointed out that thousands of Portuguese “were pushed” abroad “by the PSD/CDS government” and argued that foreigners who come to Portugal “have to have rights and duties.”
This debate was also marked by questions that remained unanswered.
The secretary general of the PCP asked the leader of Chega to “put an end once and for all” with “the lie” that communists do not pay taxes. Raimundo indicated that the PCP paid “more than 450 thousand euros” in 2022 and “the Festa do Avante! paid almost 190 thousand euros in taxes” and wanted to know how much Chega paid in contributions in the same year, but Ventura said he did not have these numbers with me.
André Ventura asked the communist whether the CDU defends Portugal’s exit from the European Union and the Euro, but Raimundo did not respond directly, advising the Chega leader to “read better” the coalition’s electoral program.