Rui Cristina will leave the PSD and is taken for granted as head of Chega por Évora's list. The parliamentarian, who has now abandoned his activism in the Social Democrats, will be a deputy not registered until the end of the legislature, claiming that Luís Montenegro's leadership is only concerned with «internal accounting adjustments».
According to SIC Notícias, Rui Cristina will be head of André Ventura's party list for the Évora constituency. The channel cites a party source who says the announcement will be made “in the next few days”.
Furthermore, according to SIC, the name has already been approved by the district of Évora do Chega.
When asked by Lusa about the possibility of joining Chega's candidate lists, Rui Cristina, who has been active in the PSD for more than 20 years, was evasive.
«The future requires consideration and reflection», he said, neither confirming nor denying the inclusion on Chega's lists.
Rui Cristina was announced as the fifth candidate on the PSD list for the district of Faro to the early legislative elections of March 10th, headed by social democratic vice-president Miguel Pinto Luz, after having been number two in the 2022 elections. The fact that it fell down the list would have caused discomfort, leading to the departure of the PSD… and this alleged approach to Chega.
In a letter sent to Luís Montenegro, to which Lusa had access, Rui Cristina accused the current PSD leadership of having «greater concern with internal adjustments of accounts, the imposition of egos that in essence do not make serious commitments to the party, interested only in a permanent struggle for power”.
Rui Cristina is the second PSD parliamentarian to leave the party in recent weeks, after António Maló de Abreu, who was confirmed this weekend as Chega's candidate by the circle outside Europe, after previously refusing this possibility.
In an email sent to Social Democratic deputies, Rui Cristina also informed that she intends to complete the current legislature as a non-registered deputy, claiming that the political conditions are not met to continue to be part of and work in the parliamentary group.
Rui Cristina was a PSD deputy, elected by the Algarve, since 2019. In the last local elections, he was even the candidate of the Social Democrats for the Chamber of Loulé, the municipality of which he is from.
Furthermore, he was also leader of the local PSD.
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