Right-wing leader in Portugal says he will veto Lula in the country if elected

On the eve of Portugal’s legislative elections, the leader of the right-wing Chega party, André Ventura, stated that if he is elected as prime minister, he will ban President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) from entering the country on April 25, the date in which the Carnation Revolution is celebrated.

“If Chega wins the legislative elections, the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, will not enter Portugal”said the deputy.

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The conservative also said that he will arrest Lula if the head of the Brazilian Executive insists and goes to Portugal. “I guarantee you that, if I am prime minister, Mr Lula da Silva will stay at the airport. And if he insists, he will go to jail.”he declared.

Ventura stated that“this won’t be big news for him”. He made the speech in provocation to Lula, given that the PT member was imprisoned for 580 days at the Federal Police Superintendency in Curitiba (PR).

Furthermore, he declared that he wanted to limit the entry of the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. “It will only come in when necessary, because we also don’t want it to come in too often”these.

“This government will not allow these corrupt internationals to enter our territory”said Ventura.

Sánchez met with Lula on Wednesday (March 6, 2024) at Palácio do Planalto. The main topic discussed among the leaders was the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

On January 2, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) made a video declaring support for the conservative deputy. Ventura shared the recording on his X profile.

“To everyone in Portugal, especially Brazilians, we have a meeting with the polls. It is very important for all of us that André Ventura, from Chega, gets this seat as prime minister”said Bolsonaro in the recording.

Ventura thanked the former president for his support: “I thank the former President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, for his message of support for the 2024 legislative elections. They know well how the left turned their country into a den of misery and corruption“, he wrote.

According to a survey by Paraná Pesquisas published on February 22, there is a three-way technical tie between the AD (Democratic Alliance) coalition – made up of the PPM (Popular Monarchic Party), PSD (Social Democratic Party) and the CDS (Popular Party) –, the Center-left Socialist Party and the right-wing Portuguese party, Chega.

Voting intentions are 21.4%, 21.1% and 16.9%, respectively, with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points plus or minus, in the spontaneous scenario – the only methodology tested in the survey. Here is the full text (PDF – 287 kB).