Ventura said the prime minister had not been heard from for days and pointed to Friday, 16 October, in Brussels as the last time Luís Montenegro addressed housing and the protests.
Ventura called the government's lack of response a "rastilho" (fuse) for wider unrest and said that, if conditions were this way in France, Portugal could see worse without action.
Ventura, who has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Luís Neves, said Neves lost more face after saying there would be no more camps, as the camps returned on 21 October.
On Monday, 19 October, Pedro Passos Coelho opened an abortion colloquium at the Assembleia da República, and Ventura questioned whether it was the right moment to raise the topic.
At a lunch debate organised by the International Club of Portugal on Thursday, 22 October 2026, at the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa, Chega leader André Ventura put housing at the centre of his speech, alongside immigration, public security and the direction of the Portuguese right. The room was full of business people, diplomats and public figures, and some of his remarks drew laughter and applause. Ventura said the prime minister had not been heard from for days and asked where Luís Montenegro was. He said Montenegro turns up for football but not for housing, and that if he were prime minister he would already have spoken to the country and acknowledged that there is a housing problem. The last time Montenegro addressed housing and the street protests was Friday, 16 October, in Brussels.
Ventura pressed the point directly:
“But where is the prime minister? We have not known where the prime minister is for days.”
Ventura called the government's lack of response a "rastilho" (a fuse) that could escalate the social protests already on the streets. He said responsibility rests with everyone, not only the press, and that solutions had to be presented. Earlier, over the weekend of 17 to 18 October, he had announced an emergency legislative package on housing. Ventura also criticised the housing protests, attributing ideological motives to their organisers and accusing them of attacking the right and stirring up hatred. He voiced concern about police authority and the maintenance of public order.
A participant asked whether Portugal could see unrest similar to what has occurred in France. Ventura said France has a history of violent demonstrations, which Portugal has not had, but he considered such a possibility here. The accounts differ on this point: PÚBLICO reports that he considered it a possibility, while a Notícias ao Minuto report says he did not. He argued that French wages are higher, housing is easier to access and the tax burden on income is lighter, and then warned:
“If it is like this there, in these terms, imagine what could happen here if nobody does anything.”
He urged the government not to assume that Portugal is a "tame country" it can always control. Ventura, who has called for the resignation of Interior Minister Luís Neves, said Neves had lost even more face after saying there would be no more protest camps, because the camps returned on 21 October.
Ventura also criticised former prime minister and PSD leader Pedro Passos Coelho, who on Monday, 19 October, opened a colloquium on abortion in Portugal organised by the Federação Portuguesa pela Vida at the Assembleia da República. Ventura said he had great admiration for Passos Coelho but questioned whether this was the moment to put abortion on the public agenda. He said people feeling the rising cost of living were not interested in abortion and wanted their lives sorted out. Asked whether the topic was unimportant, he said the right needed a strategy for choosing when and how to discuss such matters, and listed the minimum wage, motorway tolls and the retirement age as issues he would not leave to the left. He rejected any suggestion that this meant Chega was moving closer to the left, saying he would not play the game of becoming a minority elite that discusses matters among itself.
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Chega leader André Ventura said at a Lisbon lunch debate that Prime Minister Luís Montenegro had been silent on the housing crisis and recent protests, which he called a possible fuse for wider unrest.
AI text based on reports by SAPO, PÚBLICO and Notícias ao Minuto. Published .