SOS Racismo today accused Chega of being a party that “actively promotes racism and xenophobia”, a position contrary to the demonstration promoted on Saturday by the leader of this formation, André Ventura, “wanting to deny racism”.
In a statement sent to Lusa the day after the party led by deputy André Ventura to promote a demonstration through the streets of Lisbon to show that in Portugal there is no racism and support for the security forces that brought together around 1,200 people, SOS Racism added more names to the protagonists of the event.
“The gathering that yesterday [sábado] took place in Lisbon, was announced by the criminal Mário Machado and made official by André Ventura and Chega. The motto chosen for the tour was “Portugal is not racist”, a designation that deserved acceptance and motivated, precisely, people who have already been convicted of crimes of racial discrimination ”, the statement said, later identifying other presences.
According to SOS Racismo “several Chega leaders, such as Luís Filipe Graça, Nelson Dias da Silva or Tiago Monteiro, known for their participation in neo-Nazi movements and for their connections with criminals already convicted by the courts”, were also at the parade.
“Thus, the initiative that we have seen from Chega, wanting to deny racism, leaves no doubt of its contrary, that this is a party that actively promotes racism and xenophobia. Their persecution of black and gypsy communities is deliberate and their incitement to hatred is recurrent. The gathering we witnessed proved this ”, summarizes the press release.
Returning to the party leader, that organization considers that the “signage observed by Ventura himself, with his arm raised in the air, whether to affirm that there is no racism in Portugal or to confirm his contrary, leaves no doubt of innocence about his real fascist nature ”.
“To claim that there is no racism in Portugal is, therefore, to deliberately lie. This idea, which André Ventura translated into a ‘slogan’, unfortunately replicates statements by traditional party leaders who declared that there was no racism in Portugal in reaction to the June 6 anti-racist demonstration ”, continues the document of that organization.
Emphasizing that “the truth is not strong nor a concern for Ventura or for his Party”, SOS Racism considers, on the contrary, that “lying and misrepresenting reality are well-oiled tools of its strategy”.
As an example, he cited the European Social Survey, whose last 2018/2019 survey revealed that “62% of Portuguese people manifest racism, answering positively to at least one of the following questions:“ are there ethnic or racial groups by nature more intelligent? are there ethnic or racial groups by nature more workers? or are there cultures, by nature, more civilized than others? ”.
Proceeding, SOS Racismo says that the promoters of the demonstration “also clearly fail in the face of the recent and so real and expressive demonstration of the past June 6th, 2020, in which thousands of people made the decision to go out into the streets not only in Lisbon and Porto, but also in several other cities ”and Portugal, pointing out“ a big difference in relation to the gathering ”seen in the Chega parade.
“It is that many of these people know racism in the first person, in their daily lives and in view of this, there is no way to deny it”, concluded the communication.
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