There are some ways to interpret the seriousness of the rebellion that André Ventura asked the police “inside and outside†of parliament for this Thursday. The conclusions are that they all lead to the same place.
The first and most obvious is that many have known for many months: Chega exists to create or cement chaos. Anything goes for this purpose and the illusion of a Portuguese radical right largely or exclusively of ‘discontent’ It was a kind of naivety in a story for idiots mode that continued over time. The second is that there is no setback like that of the European elections that tempers or prevents this party from reaching its roots. The objective is to corrode society in such a way that infiltration into certain sectors becomes increasingly greater and contaminates. Finally, the third and last is that André Ventura really cares about the cause of the police. In a phase of full negotiations with the new government and in which conditions have already been managed to improve, the leader of the radical right makes an appeal that could call this same reality into question. Especially because it is far from certain that a large part of Portuguese society sees itself as security forces acting in the way that André Ventura asks them to do. On the contrary.
How did we get here?
It’s easy to understand and just look at two of the reactions to this request. That of the main PSP union and that of Movimento Zero, which joined together and reinforced what Ventura intended with all police officers. The last one, from this movement, is not surprising in the slightest either. Since 2021, for the good connoisseur, some of the signs highlighted in a wide variety of investigations are clarifying. Crimes for promoting racism, xenophobia and not only on social media have made this armed wing of Chega outside of them as one of the movements that could lead to the complete discrediting of these security forces §The. The dizzying descent promised it and there was some naivety, intentional or not, on the part of the Prime Minister himself, Luís Montenegro, in not realizing in the electoral campaign where the cause began and the infiltration of the extreme -right on PSP and GNR. This is what should worry most about this union’s reaction.
Be that as it may, hardly anyone paying attention still believes that André Ventura and Chega want anything other than to capitalize on the infiltration that comes from that time in these and other entities. The withering away of democracy in all its shapes and forms depends on this.
It is no coincidence that a much more nervous André Ventura after the European elections reacted so badly to the former prime minister, António Costa, at the European Council and to the ineffectiveness of the ‘shot’ ™ of the tapping of part of the Public Ministry. Or that it cannot deal with the constant discrediting of the form and way of acting of this same fundamental entity and the current Attorney General of the Republic in the eyes of the majority of Portuguese people.
Is it in this context that the police want to continue taking the radical right leader’s requests seriously?
Unlike the USA, we are and hopefully will stay away from the prediction that fascism will arrive wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
