A meeting is set to occur on the 17th at the CCB’s Congress and Meetings Center, organized by the Patriots Foundation, which includes far-right European parties led by Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, Santiago Abascal, and André Ventura, as stated in a communiqué from AAVP signed by the three directors.
“What criteria governed this hosting?” questions the AAVP in the statement, further inquiring, “Does a public cultural entity like the CCB approve the rental of a public space solely from a commercial and possibly partisan viewpoint, ignoring what is being presented there?”
The Association asserts that the “CCB administration cannot simply state its ‘commercial policy is governed by principles of legality, freedom, and tolerance’ as sufficient,” especially regarding the “promotion of ideas that degrade freedom and tolerance.”
The AAVP finds the CCB’s response “fallacious and insufficient,” especially concerning “the promotion and dissemination of ideas that undermine freedom and tolerance.”
“It’s important to remember that the CCB was built to be the seat of the European Union Presidency in 1992, a place to host democratic values,” emphasizes the AAVP’s statement.
To substantiate its claim, the association quotes from the Patriots Foundation’s program discussed and defended at the CCB, which describes the “suffocating grip of what it calls ‘woke’ ideology,” arguing it corrodes “the foundations of free expression and national identity,” challenging “true defenders of Europe to resist cultural commissioners and reclaim the right to speak truths without filters.”
“The CCB management compromises the venue’s entire cultural program with such decisions, undermining the democratic and cultural values it seeks to convey externally and to society,” asserts the AAVP, stressing that “it cannot be complacent with these situations.”
“In this turbulent world, we are daily confronted with news of threatening speeches and sectarian gestures, whether in institutional operations or revisionism sought in cultural spaces,” adds the AAVP, urging vigilance.
The Association warns, “Historical lessons show how cyclically there were attacks on free expression that resulted in the rise of authoritarian ideologies and subsequent dictatorial regimes,” considering that the CCB administration “has an ethical commitment to the professionals at CCB, with artists from various areas, with programmers and producers, and with the public that attends exhibitions and fills the performance halls.”
The Association emphasizes it “cannot tolerate this kind of political appropriation of a radically opposing nature of a cultural space which, in a democracy, is a place where creative freedom, diversity, and inclusion are fundamental values.”
It states “it does not want” a public space where the basic principles of freedom are questioned and distorted by populist speeches, new nationalist narratives, manipulating truth to try to win with the weapon of demagoguery.”
“The Portuguese State and the current CCB board have the duty to dissociate themselves and clearly guarantee that similar situations cannot recur,” they advocate, adding that culture “is a space for creation and discussion, a platform to talk about human rights, democracy, pluralism, tolerance, and equality.”
“The AAVP repudiates any discourse that weakens and adulterates the values of freedom and democracy” and, as a representative structure of visual artists, “publicly expresses the concerns of numerous artists,” having also refused the invitation to participate in the Culture Forum organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports held today at the CCB.”
With AAVP members present at the Avenida 211 exhibition opening Friday at the Contemporary Art Museum/CCB, the association concludes the communiqué expressing “the discomfort some of these artists feel presenting their work in a cultural space that hosted promoters of an ideology intended to interfere with and manipulate the free thinking of creators.”
The first reaction to the Patriots Foundation meeting at the CCB came from director Pedro Penim on Saturday, who publicly distanced himself from the CCB administration, citing “institutional coherence, but also personal and political integrity.”
In comments to Lusa, Penim emphasized that he “expects” the CCB board to take a stand “for hosting the Patriots Foundation meeting.”
On the other hand, on Monday, the CCB administration told Lusa that “the event occurred due to a conference hall rental at the CCB Congress and Meetings Center for a private event, whose concrete content was unknown.”
“The CCB Congress and Meetings Center conducts dozens of private events monthly promoted by third parties and has been in the events market since its founding in 1993, motivated by the first Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, enjoying great prestige as a service provider in this area, and governing its commercial policy by principles of respect for legality, freedom, and tolerance,” adds the CCB administration note.
For Pedro Penim, Friday’s event at the CCB, “promoted by the so-called Patriots Foundation and publicized by Chega, attended by far-right figures, turns a public cultural space into an institutional legitimation platform for speeches that deny the values of freedom and equality.”
The Patriots Foundation conference, themed ‘The Great Pushback – Freedom First,’ was publicized by Chega MEP António Tanger Corrêa, who praised “the first Patriots Foundation conference in Portugal” on social media platform X and Instagram, claiming “the green deal is to be suspended”: “The Great Pushback starts now! Stay tuned – this is just the beginning!”
The Patriots Foundation, including MEPs from the European Parliament’s Patriots for Europe group with Chega’s involvement, presents itself online as “a European political foundation” opposed “to any transfer of national sovereignty to supranational bodies and/or European institutions.”
Its website features publications about “neo-feminism” as a threat to women’s security, immigration control as “a major challenge for Europe,” and as proof that press freedom is at risk in Western countries, the prevalence of criticisms of Viktor Orbán’s government and authoritarianism, in power in Hungary since 2010.
Pedro Penim, also the artistic director of Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, told Lusa that his stance “is very personal, but has its implications.” When asked if his personal opinion implied not taking TNDM productions to that cultural center, Pedro Penim stated that “there is no forecast of TNDM doing shows at the CCB.”
Pedro Penim insisted on the need for “some form of justification (…) minimally acceptable for what occurred.” “So for now, there are no further implications beyond this personal implication of publicly distancing myself from the CCB’s activities.”
