Chega president André Ventura has again commented on Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's controversial statements on reparations for former colonies, considering that, if taken, it would be a "financial suicide and an arbitrary imposition on the Portuguese that makes no sense".

"The words of the President of the Republic left no path untrodden, they imposed a path that has to be followed and this path is that of compensation, which we understand to be completely unfair and deeply unnecessary", André Ventura began by saying, in statements to journalists, on the sidelines of the electoral campaign taking place in Funchal, Madeira. 

Ventura reiterated that the Head of State "coerced the Government into a decision it did not want", in addition to the fact that "the majority of the Portuguese people are unaware of it and deeply against it".

"Under no circumstances can the people accept self-inflicting such a dose of responsibility with such a dose of consequences that this entails", he also noted.

For the leader of Chega, compensating "the countries where it was" is, for Portugal, a "financial suicide and an arbitrary imposition on the Portuguese", which, in his opinion, "makes no sense".

Ventura revealed that he had received numerous contacts from, for example, Portuguese ex-combatants and leaves a guarantee: "If we ever had to carry out any reparation process, it would be to these men and women".

"If Chega ever governs, the only reparation process that will be carried out will be to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who had to flee with nothing, who were abandoned with nothing at the mercy of their enemies and to the former combatants who lost the best years of their lives, to our fathers, to our grandfathers, who had to fight", he also highlighted.

In this sense, André Ventura passed 'the ball' to Parliament, stressing that it should "stand by a President of the Republic who betrayed his country" or, on the other hand, "stand by the thousands, if not millions, of wronged people who feel these words with the greatest fury".

"I would like to appeal to the PS and PSD, the only ones who can form a majority with us, to let the matter go ahead, so that the Supreme Court can analyse whether or not these statements constitute a crime in the exercise of the President of the Republic", Ventura pointed out.

For all these reasons, André Ventura stressed that today the formal and unprecedented complaint against Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be delivered, stressing that the President of the Republic "is not a mere citizen with freedom of expression".

Leia Também: Chega will not make any agreement with the PSD in Madeira. It would be "incoherent" (Portuguese version)