André Ventura defended this Thursday, December 18, in court that the posters targeting gypsies are a legitimate political message whose prohibition or withdrawal would represent a “very serious precedent” and that the authors of the action intend a “political judgment” of their activity.
The leader of Chega is responding in court to the petition filed by a group of representatives of the gypsy community demanding the removal of posters with the message “Gypsies must comply with the law”.
In court he said that the posters, placed in the context of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections, They were not intended to offend or diminish the community, but rather to spark a political debate in society about what was said to be the lack of integration and “a pattern of non-compliance” and behavior “outside the law” of this minority.
Access the request contained in the petition would be to set “a very serious precedent from a political and jurisprudential point of view”, defended André Ventura, who also said that the reasoning behind the legal action “paves the way for the end of politics in Portugal”.
“I think the authors are trying to judge my political activity in court,” said André Ventura, who added that this judgment is not up to the court, but to the voters.
Even admitting that there may be more than one interpretation of the posters and not just the one that claims to be what the message intended to convey, – with André Ventura taking full responsibility for creating the posters – the leader of Chega, asked by judge Ana Barão whether he admits that the authors may feel offended in their dignity and their right to personality, responded negatively.
“If I wanted to say that no one in the gypsy community follows the law, I would have said so, because I have that right”said André Ventura, who He insisted on his conviction that there is a behavioral deviation of the community from the norm and that he will not change his position, because he believes in it.
“[A mensagem dos cartazes] It may not please everyone, but I think I have the freedom to do so”, he said, noting that since the 25th of April 1974 there has never been a removal of political posters in Portugal.
Insisting that the gypsy community is not integrated into Portuguese society, he said that this happens because this community “does not want to”after having said that there was a responsibility of the State in this and attributing to itself “the greatest effort that was made in Portugal to draw attention to the gypsy community”.
One of the ideas that recurs in Chega’s speech and which was repeated this Thursday by André Ventura in court, that the gypsy community “is subsidized” and lives off the Social Insertion Income (RSI), being “by far the minority group where the RSI has the greatest expression”, would end up being contradicted by one of the morning’s witnesses.
The gypsy and association leader of the community Olga Mariano said that only 4% of the beneficiaries of this subsidy are gypsies.
The 75-year-old cultural mediator, who was once a municipal deputy in Almada, regarding the consequences of the posters highlighted that she lived before and after the 25th of April in Portugal, pointing out the differences: “I have never felt as discriminated and racialized as I do now”.
Two other witnesses called by the defense of the authors of the petition were also heard during the morning, who corroborated the idea that the posters worsened discrimination against the community, namely school-age children, victims of offenses by their peers.
André Ventura’s defense, however, sought to demonstrate that the authors of the petition did not suffer direct losses resulting from the posters nor did they experience anything that did not happen before their placement in various parts of the country.
André Ventura did not attend the entire morning session, causing a stampede from the hearing room of activists, party members and supporters, who when Ventura got up, they imitated him and followed the Chega leader towards the exit.
The action seeks to remove the posters and for André Ventura to be forced to pay a fine of five thousand euros for each day of delay or for posters that may be placed and have similar content.
The posters, which were placed by Chega in several locations, including in Moita, Montijo and Palmela, read the following sentence, which is accompanied by the photograph of André Ventura, as a candidate for President of the Republic: “Gypsies must comply with the law”.