The Portuguese Parliament excludes the extreme right from traveling to other countries after the incidents with Lula

26 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The president of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, Augusto Santos Silva, has announced the exclusion of far-right deputies from future official visits abroad, after the members of Chega staged a protest on Tuesday in the middle of a speech by the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Far-right legislators displayed Ukrainian flags and accused Lula of being corrupt when he was addressing Parliament as part of an official visit. Santos Silva immediately reprimanded them, assuring that they were “embarrassing” the country with his attitude.

The president of the Assembly has announced that he will not authorize members of Chega to accompany him on visits to parliaments in other countries that “include contacts with heads of state, heads of government or ministers of foreign affairs”, a measure that is applied with effect ” immediately,” according to a statement.

Santos Silva, a member of the Socialist Party and former Foreign Minister, considers that the presence of the ultra-right on this type of trip does not guarantee “one hundred percent” that the rules of “respect and courtesy” that characterize Portuguese diplomacy will be followed.

The leader of Chega, André Ventura, has not been slow to respond to what he considers a “vengeful, childish and dictatorial” attitude on the part of the president of the Assembly. He believes that Santos Silva only “accentuates a climate of conflict that is already latent” in the Chamber, according to the Lusa news agency.

Likewise, he has defended the protest on Tuesday: “It was a demonstration within our mandate as deputies and representatives of the Portuguese people.”