The president of the far-right movement Ergue-te, former judge Rui Fonseca e Castro, was detained by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Friday during an illegal far-right demonstration at Largo de São Domingos in Lisbon after refusing to comply with orders to leave the area.
“I’ll only leave here in handcuffs,” stated Fonseca e Castro, according to CNN Portugal, when warned by officers of the crime of disobedience.
Shortly afterward, Fonseca e Castro surrendered, leading to tense moments that required police intervention to manage the unrest.
More than a hundred supporters from far-right groups such as Habeas Corpus and 1143 chanted, “If one is arrested, we are all arrested.”
Previously, Fonseca e Castro had asserted that, “as a political party,” Ergue-te had the “right and freedom” to “conduct political propaganda,” especially “during a time of intense political campaigning in the context of legislative elections.”
“We have the right and freedom as a political party to engage in action and political propaganda. That is what we will do today. We will occupy public space, just as other political parties do, within our right to political propaganda,” he announced before the PSP approached him.
He further emphasized that the demonstration aimed to “celebrate Portuguese nationality” and would be conducted with “civility and fraternity.” “I don’t know how that could be seen as a provocation, according to common sense,” he told CNN Portugal.
It should be noted that the Ergue-te party and the Habeas Corpus movement, supported by the far-right group 1143, announced a demonstration featuring a “pig on a spit” at Martim Moniz, starting at 3:00 PM on this Friday, which marks the holiday of the April 25, 1974 Revolution – the Carnation Revolution.
The PSP had issued a negative opinion on the event, and the Lisbon City Council followed the police’s recommendation and did not authorize the far-right movements’ planned activities at Martim Moniz.
Despite the negative opinion from the PSP and lack of approval from the city council, Rui Fonseca e Castro assured on Thursday, in a video shared on social media, that the party would proceed with the demonstration, calling it a “family Portuguese celebration, a demonstration of Portuguese nationality, but above all, a demonstration of civility and fraternity.”
In a video posted on the public channels of Ergue-te, the former National Renovation Party (PNR), and shared by far-right movements like 1143, Fonseca e Castro argued that “a party organized event” in the context of the legislative elections campaign on May 18 “cannot be prohibited.”
Furthermore, the leader of Ergue-te stated that the party had sought an opinion from the National Election Commission (CNE), and according to them, the commission permitted the event as “configured.”
However, on Thursday, an official source from the CNE denied receiving any request for an opinion from Ergue-te concerning the planned demonstration in Martim Moniz on April 25.
