MOTION FOR A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT REJECTED

LISBON, SEPTEMBER 8 /SRNA-Reuters/ - Portuguese lawmakers rejected today a no-confidence motion filed by members of the far-right Chega party against the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.

The motion was launched after Montenegro refused to dismiss Interior Minister Luís Neves over allegations against him dating from his time as head of the judicial police.

Montenegro called the Chega party’s initiative a “political maneuver” and defended Neves, whom he considers an efficient minister.

The prosecutor's office is investigating how a truck loaded with illegal chemicals, seized during a police operation, ended up in a warehouse owned by a construction company that subsequently carried out work on Neves’s property.

The investigation is also looking into the building permits and the way Neves used a car seized from a convicted drug dealer.

Neves denies any wrongdoing and refuses to resign.

Chega leader André Ventura said that Neves was unfit to hold office and that his continued presence in the government shows that “moral standards in Portugal have completely disappeared.”

Chega has 60 seats in Parliament and is the second-largest parliamentary group in the 230-member Parliament.