It was a tense and completely divisive televised debate for the legislative elections on March 10th. Mariana Mortágua, spokesperson for BE, and André Ventura, leader of Chega, were face-to-face on RTP and did not hide the little consideration that each of them has for the other’s proposals. And the past was also called into the present. Ventura recalled the “real estate speculation” carried out by former Lisbon City Council member Ricardo Robles. Mortágua accused the leader of Chega of having as number two in the party a person who belonged to a terrorist organization “responsible for having killed Father Max”, referring to Diogo Pacheco do Amorim.
Angry, Mortágua even ended up telling Ventura that she is closer to reaching a governance solution than Ventura is to allying herself with what she calls a “political prostitute”, referring to the PSD.
The initial topic of the debate was housing, with the BE leader defending her proposal not to sell houses to non-residents and then attacking Chega: “This demand for luxury comes because there was a tax benefit, supported by Chega, and of ‘golden visas’. It is surprising that Chega wants to reintroduce ‘golden visas’, which are an open door to corruption. (…) The invitation to speculation and corruption is supported by Chega.”
Ventura counterattacked: “Chega touches on the supply and demand aspect, something that BE completely ignores (…) The weight of ‘golden visas’ is 3% in real estate investment, it has no impact”, accusing the leader of BE of having “pseudo-communist or pseudo-Venezualist” ideas.
The BE spokesperson then accused Ventura of defending the interests of real estate companies that “finance Chega”.
“What separates us is that I want people to be able to afford a home on their salary; André Ventura wants ‘golden visas’, a gateway to corruption. Chega’s proposals meet the interests and groups that finance Chega. He defended the interests of CTT and was financed by them, received money from TAP’s private shareholders and was on the TAP Commission of Inquiry.”
It was here that Ventura called Ricardo Robles into conversation, stating that he was not the one who had a councilor in the city council (of Lisbon) “who bought houses from social security to [as] sell five times more expensive.”
Mortágua then called Diogo Pacheco Amorim to the conference: “Your party has as number two a leader who belonged to the main terrorist organization in Portugal, which carried out 600 attacks and was responsible for the death of Father Max”.
Ventura responded with assurance that Amorim was never convicted of terrorism and stated that BE had on its lists “convicted of terrorism, former members of the FP25”, which Mortágua denied.
Mariana Mortágua’s grandmother, who the BE leader said in a previous debate that she went through difficult times due to the possibility of an increase in her house’s rent, was also called into the conversation by Ventura. The BE leader had a ready answer: “I don’t lie. My grandmother was 80 years old when she found out that at 85 her income could go up. If you think this doesn’t scare an elderly woman, it’s because you defend a cruel law.” “The grandmother’s story is bullshit,” replied Ventura.
The debate continued until the end with more exchanges of accusations than the presentation of proposals between a man and a woman that revealed not only ideological differences but also a great disregard for each other.