Hansel and Gretel

Amin Mohmed. Alfusseine Jaló. Juarez. Delano Chiatonne. Waleska Daniell. Cibelli. Kellyane. Andrew Jeffrey. Anaisa. Angelina Holovko. Luc Ngambo. Anny Christine. Umid Shihimardonovitch. The names listed here are not those of children from a Lisbon school, nor are they a random list generated by ChatGPT, but examples of Chega candidates for the National Assembly and local elections. It's impossible to gauge religion, ethnicity, or even nationality from their names, but by Ventura's criteria, they appear to be un-Portuguese names. Whether they begin with an "esse" or, even less so, with a "zê." So, they may not be Portuguese, but they're certainly decent.

Let's move forward, forgetting the fallacy of name origins and dispensing with etymologically based list cleansing. Chega has the right to invite whoever it wants as a candidate. Ventura opposes unregulated and even regulated immigration. It is therefore normal (and legitimate) for him to warn—within the scope of his political action—about what he considers to be the problems arising from this and that they may cause in the future. If he believes that cultural clashes may harm the population or that the country may not have places for all children based on a birth rate boost caused by immigration, he has every democratic legitimacy to defend this.

To prove this point, the Chega president could choose to use numbers. For example, he could say that a third of babies born in 2024 will be born to foreign mothers. Or that, even before the immigration boom , an ISCTE study concluded that the number of foreign students in primary and secondary education grew from 14% to 17% between 2013 and 2020 (numbers that could only have increased in recent years). Or that there's a school in Arroios (Lisbon) where the majority of students are immigrants.

Ultimately, Ventura might even blame adult immigrant parents for having children without the means to do so in a foreign country and committing the original sin of, imagine, seeking a better life for themselves and their families in another country. But no. The Chega president chose to mention children's names in the plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic and concluded with the following: "These gentlemen are not Portuguese at all." This is not the courage he so often proclaims, but the cowardice of a playground bully .

Children (if they're real, something Chega doesn't know, nor cares to know) aren't "gentlemen," they're children. And that makes all the difference. André Ventura decided to engage in politics by attacking children. And this has nothing to do with being against wokism , the leftists, or "crushing" rap's Eva or Livre's Isabel. It's Ventura's intervention, devoid of any trace of humanity. And clueless.

The Chega leader later followed up his remarks by saying it's worrying to look at names in a school and "not find a João, a Maria, or a Pedro." André Ventura knows this isn't true. And that "typical" Portuguese names continue to dominate Portuguese schools. In fact, in Algueirão-Mem Martins, where he grew up and attended elementary school (a few decades ago), the classes were far from being composed of 100% Lusitanian Joãos and Marias, and—in this context of multiculturalism and necessary integration—Ventura managed to become a renowned jurist and university professor and become leader of the third-largest political party in Portugal. Life hasn't gone badly for him, even surrounded by children of returnees from the colonies, immigrants, or children of immigrants.

For Ventura, children aren't just children. There are good and bad ones. Portuguese and other. And this raises the bar for inhumanity we've never seen before from the Chega leader.

In the little square where I live, half a dozen children play ball there every day, taking advantage of the fact that it's practically car-free. The natural leader of the group of little ones is clearly Arab, which I can tell by the way he throws habibi in perfect Portuguese. They call him "Benzema," even though he bears no physical resemblance to the original—and he's joined by Brazilian, Portuguese, and Hindu children. The 10-year-old "Benzema" can be bossy at times, but when we pass by with the baby, he tells us to stop the game to avoid accidentally hitting the ball in the stroller. He's the king of the place—and rightly so.

From the window, with the baby in my arms, I hope that one day he'll grow up and be able to play soccer with Benzema's younger siblings and the others, who will probably have names like Radith, Saahas, Sayma, or Aziz. I don't live in fear that Alcácer Quibir or Torre Pacheco will be repeated on my doorstep (it must be terrifying and psychotic to live in that constant fear). I live in hope that my son will grow up with those neighbors, those children, because that's what they are: children. What we experience there in the little square is joy, hope, and the future.

Ventura should try to attack someone his own size. And above all, remember that, in his office, there weren't just Andrés, Joãos, and Marias. The topic has been going on for days, but the Chega leader insists on keeping it current and making the intervention worthwhile: just this Monday, he shared a video of that moment, this time to boast about bringing PS deputy Eva Cruzeiro, aka Eva Rapdiva—who has about a month and a half of parliamentary experience—to heed the call. Here too, Ventura—who wants to be prime minister—should place himself on a different level, instead of acting as if he were in a Youth Parliament session in the Senate chamber. But the progress is clear: he's now attacked a freshman parliamentarian, not children.