A man with an explosive device was arrested this Thursday at the headquarters of the Portuguese far-right Chega party in Lisbon, where he allegedly wanted to kill the party’s leader, André Ventura.
A source from the Public Security Police confirmed the arrest to EFE and added that it could be a “mental health” case and that the suspect is being examined at a hospital.
For his part, Ventura, who this Thursday is in Funchal, the capital of the Madeira archipelago, where campaign events are being held ahead of the regional elections this Sunday, told the press that he had been informed that “someone had entered or attempted to enter” the headquarters of his party.
“I have very little information because they notified me now that I was coming here, to the center of Funchal, that someone had entered or tried to enter our headquarters and said that he was carrying an explosive device and that he wanted to kill me,” said Ventura.
The far-right leader added that the police have established a security “perimeter” around his party building in Lisbon and in Parliament, which is located nearby.
“This is a bomb threat and I don’t have much more information,” said Ventura, who anticipated that he will evaluate with the Police if there are more risks to his safety or if it is an isolated situation.
“It is regrettable that this escalation of violence can continue,” he stressed. “We are going to re-evaluate our own security that we have at headquarters.”
This event occurs after on May 15, a 71-year-old man shot the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, a left-wing nationalist, in the town of Handlová, in the center of the country, where he was seriously injured.