Former Minister of State and Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, said on Friday that "we are witnessing a sad day in the Assembly of the Republic" (AR), commenting on the controversial statements made by André Ventura about the Turkish people, stressing that she does not understand the subsequent attitude of Aguiar-Branco.

"It was regrettable from every point of view. Regrettable because the speech made by the leader of Chega is a discriminatory speech, which incites hatred, which is xenophobic and racist. In the house of democracy [Parliament] it is unacceptable to hear speeches of this nature and not to stop them immediately", she stressed, in an interview with SIC Notícias.

In Ana Catarina Mendes' view, this "cannot" happen. "Not everything is allowed to a deputy in the name of freedom of expression, who has speeches that are manifestly in violation of respect for human rights and in violation of people's dignity", she added.

Regarding the attitude of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, in reaction to André Ventura's statements, the former minister stressed: "I cannot understand". "I know that there is a separation of powers and that the President of the Assembly of the Republic is neither a judicial body nor a censor, but we cannot, at any time, confuse what is freedom of expression with what is respect for each one of us for inequalities", she stressed.

And she continued: "What we witnessed today in Parliament on the part of the Chega bench is an attack, from my point of view, on the most elementary human rights and, therefore, it is a speech of racism".

What is at stake?

It is recalled that it all started with an intervention by André Ventura who, when questioning the 10 years planned for the construction of the new Lisbon airport, said: "We can be much better than the Turks, than the Chinese, than the Albanians, we will have an airport in five years".

"The Istanbul airport was built and operationalized in five years, the Turks are not exactly known for being the most hardworking people in the world", Ventura had begun by saying, under protests from several benches, with Aguiar-Branco asking them to let him continue his intervention because "the deputy has freedom of expression to express himself".

Immediately, the parliamentary leader of the Left Bloc, Fabian Figueiredo, asked to speak to defend that "attributing characteristics and stereotypes to a people should not have space in the democratic debate of the Assembly of the Republic" and apologized to the Turkish ambassador.

"I don't agree, because democratic debate is each one being able to express themselves exactly as they want to. In the opinion of the President of the Assembly, the work is being carried out ensuring the free expression of all deputies, it has nothing to do with what I personally think, I will not be the censor of any of the deputies", retorted Aguiar-Branco.

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