Rita María Matías is an elected member of the Assembly of the Republic for the Chega! party, vice-president of its parliamentary group, and president of its youth organization, Juventude Chega! She holds a degree in political science from the University Institute of Lisbon and a master’s degree in political science and international relations from NOVA University of Lisbon.
I imagine you have often heard the discourse that today’s youth are nihilistic, materialistic, and lacking in commitment. That is why many in Spain were surprised to see so many young people in Valencia getting into the mud to help their fellow countrymen. What is it like to work with the Portuguese youth that you lead in Chega?
I would like to point out that in Portugal we have great admiration for the young people from all over Spain who are helping with the disaster in Valencia, and we have colleagues who are helping and sending material aid in solidarity with the Spanish. The difference between our youth—in Portugal, in Spain, or in Brazil—and this nihilistic youth, is that the conservative and patriotic youth are aware of their rights, but they are fed up with the political discourse that we only have rights: minority rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and so on. We are fed up and we want a discourse of duties: duties to our community, to our family, to the places where we live. We also have the duty to be in politics to serve others and not to serve ourselves.
You and other young people closed the Political Network for Values summit in Madrid with a manifesto in defense of life and the family. How important is the youth in this fight?
The end of the summit was a very beautiful and special moment, because I had with me one of the most popular and well-known young people in Brazil, Nikolas Ferreira, and many young Spaniards. I think that our generation has grown up as orphans in a country dominated by a leftist culture, where I grew up with the feeling that I could not speak, that I had to ask for forgiveness for my faith and my way of thinking. But now it’s a different time: we can speak out and we have an important role to play in helping the elderly in this change. That is why it was very nice to sign a commitment for life, for the defense of children and the elderly; a commitment of politicians who—like me, a deputy in Portugal—want to work in public policies for life, family, and freedom.
In Spain, we lose a lot of talent every year, because a lot of young people decide to look for a life in other countries. Does something similar happen in Portugal?
Yes; in Portugal, we have the same situation, and a third of Portuguese young people emigrate in search of better living conditions. Spain is one of the main destinations for young Portuguese people, and that is why I have a close relationship with Spanish politics: to promote policies that help these young people. This phenomenon has a great impact on our country, because it is very complicated for young Portuguese to start a family, to have a home, or to open a business—and that is why they leave. However, something very important that distinguishes us from the liberals and social democrats is that we do not only talk about improving conditions for young people, but also from the perspective of duties. We have to educate our generation to stay in their country and take care of their elders. We are very close to Christmas, and many parents and grandparents are alone in Portugal, and their children are alone abroad. It is necessary to take into account the perspective of conditions and opportunities, but without forgetting the moral and human perspective—the perspective of Christian values that have been so important in past centuries and to which we want to return with strength and vitality.
How will you achieve that?
Actually, it is what most young people want, because (contrary to what Portuguese politicians believe) we are not the nomadic generation. It seems that we have to be, because we have more flexible jobs and the inclination to work outside our country in order to have a decent life, but the truth is that, according to statistics, the desire of most young people is to have roots, to work in Portugal, and to have a house here like their parents. Their hearts are rooted in traditional values, in local values; we don’t have to invent anything, we just have to remind them that we are here to defend these values.
Chega! has one of its main electoral assets in young people, and we are the first- or second-most-voted party because we remind them of what they have imprinted in their hearts. This is why we are present in social networks, but also in schools and universities, where there is a dominant narrative that is totally contrary to our values. It is difficult for a young patriot and conservative to walk this path alone, as my generation had to do, and we are very present to be the voice and support of these young people.
Earlier you mentioned being fed-up with the ‘we only have rights’ attitude. Are young women fed up with feminism?
Young women in Portugal are starting to open their eyes to the reality of feminism. The queer agenda, as a child of feminism, is a perfect example of the erasure of women and that this ideology is a cancer from the beginning. To deny feminism is to affirm the importance of women. Women, as mothers, daughters, and wives, are a fundamental part of the family and society. The Marxists have tried to turn women into fragile beings who are dependent on the state, in order to keep them always in the condition of victims: of violence, of the system, and of themselves for the choices they have made, choices that go against their own nature. We must remind women that it is natural to want to marry and have children, and that this does not mean that they are oppressed; quite the contrary. Feminism has succeeded in empowering women away from their husbands and for fathers to become the slaves of their employers.
To be honest, this struggle is very challenging because men understand this message better than women; there are many years of repeating that women are victims, that women deserve more, and that they should be compensated for past wrongs. It is easier to want to be a victim than to want to overcome difficulties on one’s own. When we go to schools with this message, I see in the faces of the girls that it is harder for them to accept it—because it is a challenge—than it is for the boys. But the truth is that, contrary to what the Left preaches, I am a much happier and more fulfilled woman living with these values.
In addition to your work with youth, you are a member of the National Assembly as a Chega! representative. With the PSD (center-right), there are no more corruption scandals every week like there were during the previous socialist period; but is there a stable government?
The current government is very fragile, and again Spain is important for Portugal because it can be a good or bad example of what the Right can do. If the Right were to unite, we could form a government in Spain and in Portugal and have a very different political course. I think that will happen in the end, in Spain, and the Spaniards will have the opportunity to have a patriotic government. In Portugal, the same thing can happen, because after ten years of leftist domination we have a majority in parliament. We could have a very complete program among all the right-wing parties, defending liberal ideas like tax cuts and a lower tax burden, and conservative ideas like those of Chega!, focused on the fight against illegal immigration and corruption. And the PSD, as the party with the most votes, could bring its experience of government to the table. We have all the ingredients to offer the new generations a different country, and it is very sad to see that this is not happening.
Now, the PSD has negotiated the budgets with the Socialist Party, and we have seen further proof that the Left is very well organized and smarter than the Right. In the new budgets, an increase in the salaries of politicians has been agreed upon, a profoundly anti-grass roots measure that the Socialists have been unwilling to move forward during their eight years in government, but which they have agreed upon with the PSD in exchange for their support for the stability of the government. We know that the Socialists will withdraw their support for the government at the first opportunity and that the situation is very fragile. As a young woman with a passion for politics, I am sad to see that this opportunity has been lost, and that politicians are not putting Portugal before their party interests.
