Three prominent members of the Portuguese Right party Chega are being investigated for different crimes: stealing suitcases in airports, driving with excess alcohol and having sex with minors. The cases that have appeared in recent days have shaken the popularity of the party, criticized because their representatives practice the opposite of what they defend publicly.
Lisbon leader accused of child prostitution
This Thursday, André Ventura’s party – which has 49 deputies in a parliament of 230 seats – woke up with a new scandal. A municipal councilor and party leader in Lisbon was accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of two crimes of prostitution of a minor.
The case dates back to July 2023, when Councilor Lisbon Nuno Pardal, then 53 years old, had sex with a 15 -year -old boy whom he met in the application of Grindr quotes. According to the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, Both agreed to find themselves in a train station in the Lisbon area. Then they went to a pine tree where they had sex. In the end, the ultra -rightist leader gave the lowest 20 euros.
Nuno Pardal admits to having sex with the child, but He has defended himself by declaring the Portuguese Public newspaper that “it was something that happened” and that “these practices” does not usually do, reaffirming that he did not know the age of the boy, but the investigation demonstrates the opposite, since Pardal had previously asked the child his age.
Two months after this sexual encounter, Nuno Pardal tried to repeat it: “I would like to see you again” and “if necessary, I pay you again,” Pardal wrote to the child by WhatsApp, but there was no answer. The case was denounced by the victim’s parents, who found the messages on the child’s phone. “Have you never been with a Daddy? ”Asked Chega’s councilor, who also requested intimate images of the child.
Nuno Pardal was also part of the working group of the so -called children’s assembly, a kind of plenary with children from all neighborhoods in the capital to make suggestions to improve the city. In one of his meetings, Pardal publicly defended that “the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse is, in fact, for Chega a fundamental point in the field of justice”; and defended the chemical castration of those who have sex with minors.
The leader ended up resigning and the party leader, André Ventura, took the opportunity to try to get personal benefit from the case, arguing that the party was quick to withdraw the political trust now accused of child prostitution. Ventura also defended the chemical castration in the case of Chega’s former member.
When it was founded in 2019, the party grew in popularity with three flags: the end of corruption in the political class, the end of the supposed benefits that were given to the gypsy community and the chemical castration of pedophiles and minor abusers.
The deputy who stole suitcases at airports …
Elected deputy in the last legislative elections last March by the Autonomous Region of Las Azores, Miguel Arrudo was traveling every week between Lisbon and the island of São Miguel. On one of these trips between the Azores and the capital, he was surprised by the police in flagrant crime when he left the Lisbon airport carrying a suitcase that was not his.
It was not the first time he did. In the records of his domicile, 17 suitcases were found and in his office of the Assembly of the Republic, another four. The scheme was simple: Arruda approached the airport’s luggage tape and took his suitcase, along with another that did not belong to him and believed he had some value. Then I quickly entered a sink and went out with a stolen suitcase inside a larger one.
Once the scam was finished, Arruda sold stolen objects on the platform for selling clothing and second -hand objects Vintedeven taking advantage of Parliament’s postal services to pay less for shipments. Miguel Arrud Vinted It was not his, although the email that appeared in the registry was the same one that had provided to the Assembly of the Republic. That account was quickly eliminated
After knowing the case, Miguel Arruda’s statements to RTP Açores, during the March election campaign last year, became viral. During a visit to a land where a jail will be built on the island of São Miguel, Arruda promised the journalists that Chega would end crime and that the jail “could be too small for so many criminals that are there.”
After knowing the case, Chega tried to have the parliamentarian resigned, but did not give up his seat and became an independent deputy, with the right to his own office and advisor. The extreme right party, on the other hand, went from 50 to 49 deputies, but did not lose any benefit for the loss of the parliamentarian.
This Friday, Miguel Arruda was again in the center of the controversy after allegedly performing Nazi greeting during the voting shift in Parliament. Before the controversy of the suitcase, Aruda was already known for being in favor of neo -Nazis movements.
… And the one who was driving
In the early hours of Sunday, José Paulo Sousa, regional deputy of Chega in the Parliament of Las Azores, was arrested by the police with an alcohol rate of 2.25 g/liter. According to Portuguese legislation, it is a crime to drive with an breathalyzer rate greater than 1.2 g/liter. The deputy is now waiting for the result of the criminal process.
His political future will be decided at the Chega Group meeting in the Regional Parliament of Las Azores next Monday.
In addition to these cases, the extreme right party that promised “Clean Portugal” has among its members accused and investigated for crimes: the leader of Chega, André Ventura, was sentenced in May 2021 for offense to the image and honor for racist comments that he made during a television debate. It is also being investigated for a crime of incitement to hatred.
Deputy Marcus Dos Santos was arrested twice in the United States for violating immigration standards in that country, while the party leader in Aveiro was convicted of domestic violence. Also the deputy of Chega Cristina Rodrigues is being investigated for having deleted thousands of emails from the account of her former party, the PAN (equivalent to the PACMA).
Chega recruitment processes have turned out to be not very selective and have been based only on loyalty to the party leader, Ventura. With the growth of the formation of the extreme right and the need of people to cover positions, many have postulated without the party having bothered to know their background.
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