Lost in translation: hamburgers instead of citizens
Last week CHEGA leader André Ventura and his party voted against President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s request to travel to Berlin for an official visit, including participation in the city’s Bürgerfest.
Although other parties saw no harm in the visit, Ventura stated in Parliament: ‘You are approving a trip by the Head of State to Germany to go to a hamburger festival! Paid for with our taxes! He later told his followers on social media: ‘Do you think this is normal? Won’t the Portuguese people revolt?’
In the firm belief that this is a festival of hamburgers, he continued: ‘CHEGA voted against this, that’s evident. This is a disgrace! But you know why these things happen, don’t you? Because no one tells you about them. You don’t revolt because you don’t know. Tell me how ridiculous this is. How stupid it is.’
It didn’t take long for people to understand that Ventura was lost in translation, as Bürgerfest has nothing to do with hamburgers. Bürger in German means citizen, and the Bürgerfest is a 2-day Citizens Festival, held in the gardens of the President of Germany.
It is surprising that none of the 60 deputies of CHEGA (and the rest of advisors who accompany them, paid with tax money) took care to find out what was at stake before voting. Even the official website of the Portuguese President explains very clear, that Marcelo de Sousa is going to the event ‘to honour volunteer work, and promote civic involvement.’
After admitting his hilarious mistake and removing his post on X, the leader of his right-wing party CHEGA attacked the President soon after with another falsehood, claiming that ‘this President has already made 1,550 trips abroad at the expense of taxpayers.’
‘But you journalists are only worried about whether it’s hamburgers or citizenship,’ he complained against news channel SIC Notícias. In reality, the President made about ten times less trips (i.e. 155) in the past ten years!
A recent poll for the newspaper Diário de Notícias has put CHEGA in the lead in Portugal for the very first time, with 26.8% of the vote – 4% more than in the last May elections – compared to the 25.9% polled by the government coalition AD, who lost almost 6%.
Taken with the margin of error in mind, the three largest parties (Chega, AD and PS) are in a technical tie.
Despite his gaffes and ‘deliberate mistakes’, the traditional political parties are apparently unable to keep the far-right André Ventura down.
Enjoy the week Aproveite a semana (Pic Ptres/Público)