The court has dismissed the request from the social-democrats to remove Chega’s billboards, citing the primacy of the right to freedom of expression.
Speaking to journalists in Porto de Mós, the leader of the AD coalition—PSD/CDS—maintained his stance that the actions of Chega, with the dissemination of those billboards linking him to the former socialist prime minister, amounted to “a political act that exceeds the bounds of freedom of expression and mere opinion divergence.”
“The court did not see it that way—and we must respect that,” he stated.
Luís Montenegro further commented on the implications of the court’s decision regardless of the outcome.
“It is also true that the time elapsed between filing the injunction and the decision was such that it no longer had much practical effect,” he pointed out.
The action filed on March 14th at the Lisbon Civil Court by PSD requested the removal of Chega’s billboards, arguing the content was “shameful” and “defamatory” for associating him with a former government official embroiled in corruption trials.
The Lisbon Judicial Court denied Luís Montenegro’s petition to have Chega’s billboards removed.
In its decision, accessed by a news agency, the Lisbon Judicial Court dismissed the injunction presented by the prime minister, emphasizing the matter concerned “the right to freedom of expression.”
“Given this context of political dispute and public discussion” regarding “the selection of political decision-makers,” where Luís Montenegro is a candidate and party leader and Chega is a competing political party, it becomes necessary to conclude, “due to the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the nonexistence of illegality and the non-prevalence of the rights invoked” by Luís Montenegro, states the decision.
The court also noted the billboards do not directly link Luís Montenegro, who is also a candidate of the AD (PSD/CDS) in the legislative elections, to “any act likely to constitute the crime of corruption,” “nor assert that he is corrupt,” despite depicting “a former prime minister who, despite being a defendant in a criminal process, benefits from the presumption of innocence.”
“The phrase on the billboards – ’50 years of corruption’ – followed by ‘it’s time to say enough’ and ‘Vote Chega’ also does not warrant the conclusion that the respondent directly attributes any illicit act to the complainant, given that, naturally, none of those depicted, due to the duration of their political duties, could be accountable for the association of corruption with the years of democratic governance,” the decision reads.
The court further concluded that in the billboards, Chega associates Luís Montenegro, as a party leader, “to corruption,” but this connection, albeit displeasing to the prime minister, “does not contain any criminal fact imputation but rather a value judgment regarding the political responsibility of those who headed a government in a democracy.”
Speaking to journalists at the beginning of a rally in Viana do Castelo, André Ventura emphasized the significance of the issue, considering the court’s decision as a “victory for Chega” and for freedom of expression, and “a defeat” for the prime minister.
[News updated at 1:45 PM]
