Montenegro says he will seek political consensus “if possible” with PS and Chega

The Prime Minister said today that he will seek political consensus “if possible” with PS and Chega simultaneously, but admitted that the party led by André Ventura has positions of “greater regulation” on matters such as security or immigration.

In an interview with RTP, recorded in Brussels, on the eve of a European Council, Luís Montenegro reiterated that he will not make any “permanent parliamentary agreement” with either the second political force, referring to Chega, or the third, saying he has always rejected a central bloc with the PS.

“The Portuguese people wanted our program to be the main guideline for government policy. But the people also wanted us to reach an agreement with the opposition political forces, namely those with the largest representation, the PS and Chega, on the terms under which one or the other policy should be approached. If possible, with both,” he said.

If this is not possible, Montenegro admitted that he will seek approaches “with whoever is most available to be able to safeguard the commitments he made to voters”.

“There are several commitments that are common to the three parties and there are others that are common between the AD and the PS and others that are common between the AD and Chega”, he pointed out.

In areas of sovereignty, such as Defense, he argued that the Government will seek “the greatest possible consensus”, as in security or immigration, where he considered that there is “a relative consensus in Portuguese society”.

The Prime Minister argued that “there was an evolution of the PS in relation to immigration” in the previous legislature, saying he hoped that this party “would not be left out” of an approach that he considered to be being made in relation to the positions of the PSD/CDS-PP Government.

“It is true that Chega has some positions that are more extreme than ours, and we will naturally not reach that point, but it does not cost me anything to recognize that it is a party that has presented points of view that, in a generic way, fit into more regulation and more capacity for integration”, he stated.

Montenegro argued that, if “a greater scope in parliament is possible”, this will correspond to “the political will of the Portuguese people” and “stability in fundamental policies for the coming years”.

“The greater the support, the greater the guarantee that the policy can continue,” he said.