"It is not about continuing to drain resources to Ukraine (...) bleeding the Portuguese coffers and the pockets of the Portuguese, which will take money away from our hospitals, our schools, our fishermen and our farmers, that is not what will bring peace", said the ADN candidate.

Joana Amaral Dias was speaking to journalists at the Cais dos Pescadores in Costa Nova do Prado, in Ílhavo, in the district of Aveiro, after spending a few hours on board a fishing boat in the ria de Aveiro.

The head of the ADN list said that peace in Ukraine can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiation.

"I do not want our children to come home in coffins and Luís Montenegro should be fighting for that instead of feeding the arms lobby", she said.

The candidate also took the opportunity to deny that the party she is running for in these elections could have been confused with the AD (Democratic Alliance) in the legislative elections, considering that this theory was used by Luís Montenegro to justify "the lousy result" he obtained.

"Nobody confuses AD with ADN, because then they would also confuse PS with PSD. In the elections in Madeira there was also no AD and yet ADN had a historic result. There is the proof that there was no mistake", she said.

Joana Amaral Dias also criticized the way European funds are distributed in Portugal, proposing an "almost total restructuring".

"European funds cannot continue to come in droves for people to live at the Sheraton, in Porto, or to hold fashion events, which may support the textile sector temporarily, but which do not go to what we really need, for the reindustrialization of the country, for education and for fishing", she said.

She also said that it is necessary to "rescue part of Portugal's sovereignty and independence", arguing that the country must have the right to reject directives that are contrary to national interests.

"90% of our daily life, what we eat, the way we educate our children comes from Brussels, but it cannot be contrary to national interests. When it is adverse to these interests, we have to have the right to effectively reject them", she argued.

Regarding the result in the European elections, Joana Amaral Dias said that she hopes to be elected to the European Parliament, stating that she is convinced that if she can currently bother so many people, without a party and without a position, once elected, she will be able to "bother even more and make a change for all Portuguese workers".

The head of the ADN list, who accompanied the fishermen of Costa Nova in their work, was pleased with the experience and said that this initiative served to confirm some of the main concerns and denunciations that the party has made, that the fishermen who "needed to be supported are not receiving support".

After a few hours of work, the fishermen returned to the dock with about half a dozen kilos of cuttlefish, a good day for those who live off what the sea or the ria gives, as master Mário Rocha said: "This is relative. We throw the nets into the water and it may or may not come".

"Sometimes we go two or three months without going to sea or to the river and we don't receive anything. I have to know how to earn today, to eat tomorrow or beyond", concluded this 43-year-old fisherman.

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