"We are comparing the incomparable and only bad faith can lead to these statements", she said.

Inês de Sousa Real was speaking in Covilhã, Castelo Branco district, where she reacted to the news reported by the newspaper Nascer do SOL, which reported that the PAN spokesperson owns two agricultural production companies that use intensive farming practices, such as greenhouses and pesticides.

Following the news, the general secretary of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP), Luís Mira, criticized the PAN spokesperson in statements to newspaper i, considering that “it is obvious that she has to resign”.

“If the secretary general of CAP does not know the difference between a greenhouse or a tunnel, and also does not know how to distinguish the difference between small and large-scale producers (…), it clearly seems to me that it is he who should resign”, she said.

Inês Sousa Real confirmed that she was linked to two agricultural companies, and stressed that this link has always been public knowledge and that it is in the declaration of interests that she delivered to the Assembly of the Republic.

She also clarified that she has already left one of the companies and is waiting for the transfer of quotas from the other to be carried out, given that the new functions as spokesperson for the PAN party do not leave her time to accompany the companies.

Even so, she denied that the aforementioned companies use intensive agricultural practices, having guaranteed that, on the contrary, they were always guided by “good agricultural, environmental and social practices”.

The PAN spokesperson stressed that in one of the cases, the company has four hectares and that it only uses 1.7 hectares, with the rest being fallow and that in the other case, the largest dimension of production is from organic farming.

About the alleged greenhouses, she clarified that what is really at issue is production in tunnels, which is “different”.

Asked about the workers, she explained that the company uses nationals and foreigners, but that it hires directly to "avoid any type of human rights violation."