André Ventura? He's "an agent of transformation for the PSD from the outside"

"There's a phrase that may seem provocative, but I think it reflects the political reality of this legislature to this day. It's the return of Dr. André Ventura to the PSD, but it's a return where Dr. André Ventura realized that it's easier to transform the PSD from the outside than from the inside," Eurico Brilhante Dias argued in an interview with Lusa.

In the view of the leader of the PS parliamentary group, "there has been a change in the nature" of the party led by Luís Montenegro, and the president of Chega, who was once a Social Democrat, is now "an agent of transformation within the PSD from the outside."

"We don't know what will happen in the future, but to this day, Dr. Luís Montenegro governs with Dr. André Ventura in a de facto coalition," he condemned.

Ironically saying that "neither the Government is Carochinha" nor the PS "is João Ratão", Brilhante Dias points out that the "palpable and factual reality" is that the Prime Minister chose to "govern with the extreme right".

"As a democratic party serving this country, as a democratic opposition, we have an obligation: to build an alternative and to tell the Portuguese people that the central issues of their lives should be discussed by democratic, moderate, credible people, like the secretary-general of the Socialist Party," he argues.

The PS leader mentions "an agreement denied and then confirmed in the law on foreigners, in the nationality law and in the IRS" as examples of the executive's choice until now to "govern with the extreme right", issues in relation to which he guarantees that the PS has always shown a willingness to dialogue.

"It was a choice made by Luís Montenegro, who wanted to reach an understanding with the far right. It's his own choice, which the Portuguese will look at and will surely judge later," he emphasizes.

Recalling that the PS "was born in hiding and in the fight against the dictatorship", Brilhante Dias states that the socialists have "a democratic obligation to tell the PSD that it does not have to remain in the hands of the extreme right to govern".

"We are not partners with the government. We are a responsible democratic party. We are a firm opposition where we must be a firm opposition, capable of dialogue on issues that are central to the lives of the Portuguese people and the life of the Portuguese Republic," he asserts.

According to the Socialist parliamentary leader, unlike the Prime Minister, for the PS the "anti-democratic system ideas" that it accuses Chega of having "are not normalizable."

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