Court rejects PM’s request that posters be taken down
CHEGA is delighting in a court ‘victory’ today which means its election posters, associating both the prime minister, and the leader of the Socialist party, with ‘faces of corruption’ over the last 50 years can stay up through the current campaign.
Lisbon’s administrative court has ruled on a request filed by prime minister Luís Montenegro, justifying its decision regarding one particular poster (see image above) on the need to uphold freedom of expression, and on the fact that no illegality has been committed.
According to the decision, the poster does not “directly associate Luís Montenegro (…) with the commission of any fact that could constitute the crime of corruption (…) nor does it state that he is corrupt – despite the fact that there is an image of a former prime minister who, albeit he is a defendant in one of the most complex criminal proceedings in Portuguese history, “benefits from the presumption of innocence”.
“The phrase that appears on the posters – 50 years of corruption – followed by “It’s time to say enough (which in Portuguese translates as chega) and “Vote CHEGA”, also does not authorise the conclusion that the defendant directly imputes to the plaintiff of the commission of any illicit fact, and, of course, none of those portrayed, due to the length of time they have held political office, could be responsible for the association that is made of corruption with the years of democracy,” reads the decision.
The court also understands that the CHEGA poster associates Luís Montenegro, as leader of a party, ‘with corruption’, but that this association, although it displeases the prime minister, “does not contain any imputation of criminal facts, but rather a value judgement regarding the political responsibility of those who have led a government in a democracy”.
“The message expressed on the poster – and the value judgement it contains – arises in the wake of a political party, in a context of political dispute and public controversy, and has a clear political intention, since it targets the actions of other political parties and the image of the applicant, “an actor in public life”, appears as the leader of a party and a candidate for elections,” the court also said.
Other posters up throughout the country depict Luís Montenegro, alongside Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, with the faces of former BES banker Ricardo Salgado, and José Sócrates (both of whom face multiple suspicions of corruption; indeed Salgado has already been found guilty of some of them), and similar messages about 50 years of corruption. Mr Montenegro has not requested that these posters be removed.
Speaking to journalists at the start of a rally in Viana do Castelo today, CHEGA leader André Ventura could not have been more enthusiastic about the court’s decision, describing it as a ‘victory for CHEGA’ and for freedom of expression, and ‘a defeat’ for the Prime Minister.
“I hope that Luís Montenegro draws from this court decision, in the middle of an election campaign, the consequences that freedom must be guaranteed, rights must be guaranteed, and he cannot try to silence his opponents,”’” said Ventura, adding that “the fight against corruption has also been safeguarded”.
Source material: LUSA
