Ventura announces joint list with the PSD for the Council of State

The leader of Chega revealed this Thursday, March 26, that an agreement has been reached with the PSD regarding elections for external bodies, announcing that the two parties will present a joint list of candidates for the Council of State. In a statement at the Assembly of the Republic, André Ventura explained that Chega will nominate one person for the Council of State, though he did not disclose whether he would remain in this advisory body to the President of the Republic himself. Ventura stated he has no indication yet as to whether the Socialist Party will join this joint list. Seguro has called the first Council of State meeting for April 17 to discuss Security and Defence. According to the d'Hondt method, there would be three members nominated by the PSD, one by Chega, and one by the PS, he admitted. 'In the broadest scenario, Chega will have two members, and the Socialist Party will never have two members on the Council of State,' he added. André Ventura reaffirmed that the PSD and Chega have reached an agreement regarding the names for the Constitutional Court. As he mentioned on Tuesday, this agreement provides for the PSD to nominate two names for the Constitutional Court and Chega one. Chega will nominate appellate judge Luís Brites Lameiras. 'The primary interlocutor for this negotiation was the PSD parliamentary leader,' but Ventura also spoke with the Prime Minister and PSD leader, Luís Montenegro. 'It is evident that there would be no agreement if the two leaders were not in agreement,' he noted. This Thursday morning, the PSD parliamentary leader stated that the party will continue 'in the privacy of negotiations' for external bodies and neither confirmed nor denied an agreement with Chega for the selection of judges for the Constitutional Court. The PSD has requested a new extension of the deadline for submitting lists for the Council of State, the Ombudsman, and the Constitutional Court.