Amadora, Portugal, July 15, 2025 (Lusa) - The leader of the far-right party, Chega, on Tuesday accused the secretary-general of the PS of being desperate to prove himself relevant, commenting on José Luís Carneiro's challenge to the prime minister to negotiate a strategic agreement on defence.
‘What José Luís Carneiro gives the impression of is a certain desperation to prove himself relevant, especially on an issue that was practically settled,’ he said, also accusing the PS of having become ‘pathetic’.
“For Chega, it is actually good that the PS is becoming less and less important, but looking in from the outside, I cannot help but notice how ridiculous the PS is becoming in Portugal and how out of touch it remains with the concerns of the people,” he said.
André Ventura was speaking to journalists before meeting with the administration of the Amadora-Sintra Hospital and after journalists asked him about the challenge launched by the PS secretary-general to the prime minister to negotiate a proposal for a “Strategic Agreement for a National Development and Defence Training Plan”.
In a letter sent to Luís Montenegro, José Luís Carneiro proposed the establishment of a joint PSD/PS parliamentary working group which, in conjunction with the government and representatives from relevant sectors in the area of defence, could present this agreement within three months.
“We value action, not working groups; let’s remove the ‘group’ and get on with the job. People pay politicians to work, and so it is unfortunate that the leader of the Socialist Party focuses only on PS positions in public administration and on making himself relevant,” he criticised.
André Ventura said he sought clarification on José Luís Carneiro’s objective and recalled that the prime minister had met with the PS and Chega before the NATO summit, at which Luís Montenegro declared that Portugal would have to increase its defence budget by around €1 billion by the end of the year to reach 2% of GDP.
The Chega president reiterated that his party would ‘participate in this effort to reach a consensus on a structural increase in defence spending, provided that it does not jeopardise social spending, particularly on pensions and development’.
Another condition of Chega is that the government said that this investment "will also create Portuguese industries that will return to the economy in the medium term, i.e. that it is not a direct loss investment, but an investment with a return".
"I think that is the consensus, and I thought that had already been defined, so I don't see why José Luís Carneiro wants to meet about this," he said.
On that occasion, the Chega leader was also asked about the demolition of self-built houses in Loures and Amadora.
Ventura stated that the State should “prevent shacks from becoming established around Lisbon, Porto, or any other cities in an unauthorised manner” and said that “when people occupy houses or build illegal houses,” the councils should not “reward them by giving them a house.”
“Those shacks are unauthorised, someone built them there without authorisation, and many of the residents who live there are perfectly capable, with hands and feet, of working and paying for other houses, like the rest of the population,” he argued.
The Chega leader also considered that “at the time these neighbourhoods were built”, the housing and real estate markets remained stable, and that “people went there because it was more convenient for them”.
‘We need more construction, more public construction for the middle class and more generic construction so that the market has more supply,’ he stressed, opting instead to allocate “public construction for the RSI and the Roma” elsewhere.
FM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
