Two Chega MPs Walk Into Coimbra's Student Radio Mid-Broadcast and Leave Only When Police Arrive, and the Journalists' Union Calls It a Crime

Two Chega MPs led a group of party members into the studio of the Rádio Universidade de Coimbra (RUC, Coimbra University Radio) on Monday morning, in the middle of a live debate between party youth wings, and left only when the police arrived. On Tuesday the PSP (Public Security Police) said it had identified one of the MPs, Rita Matias, and the Sindicato dos Jornalistas (Journalists' Union) called the episode a crime and said it expects the Public Prosecution Service to open an inquiry.

What happened in the studio

The radio station broadcasts from the building of the Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC, Coimbra Academic Association), the students' union. In February the AAC's general assembly voted to bar Chega members from its events and its premises, by 273 votes to three with 30 abstentions. When the RUC launched a weekly debate between the youth wings of the parties in parliament, it invited Chega to take part remotely. Jaime Raposo of the station's news department told Lusa that the party's district leader, Paulo Seco, replied on Sunday that Chega would not take part on those terms.

On Monday, with members of Livre, the Socialist and Social Democratic youth wings and the Liberal Initiative on air, Chega members walked into the studio led by Rita Matias and fellow MP Madalena Cordeiro. "We ignored Chega's presence and carried on with the debate, but at a certain point Rita Matias picked up one of the studio microphones and I decided to cut the broadcast," Raposo said. He said members filmed on their phones and refused to leave, and that the group left only when three PSP officers arrived. The AAC said the situation lasted close to an hour and that the group also entered the offices of its board.

The PSP's Coimbra district command told Lusa that Matias was identified "as the person responsible for a demonstration that did not meet the legal requirements", and that she was the only member of the group to be identified. Officers asked the group to leave, and it did. The police also identified a vice-president of the AAC, as the body that had called them.

Chega's account

Matias, who coordinates Chega's youth wing, told Lusa that the remote format was "offensive" because it did not give every youth wing "equal circumstances for the debate". She said she took no microphone from any participant, that 17 young party members were present, and that the party had no intention of staying in the studio or stopping the broadcast. "What we really dispute is the Academic Association's resolution," she said, calling the ban neither democratic nor constitutional, and adding that the party's fight "does not stop here".

The reactions

The AAC's president, José Machado, told Observador the entry was "a clear violation" of the association's political sovereignty, and said it "only reinforces" the February decision. The Journalists' Union said a group of about 30 people had "insulted and frightened" students, staff and journalists and forced a live broadcast off air. It said it will write to the PSP to ask what it did to protect the people in the newsroom, and it wants to see whether parliament's integrity committee acts on the two MPs. The Movimento Associativo Estudantil (Student Associative Movement), a grouping of academic associations and federations, wrote to Chega's leader, André Ventura, on Tuesday asking him to explain the episode.

Ventura is the only candidate in Chega's leadership vote on 31 October. We found no comment from him on the Coimbra episode by Tuesday afternoon.