The National Elections Commission (CNE) ruled in favor of the National Democratic Alternative (ADN) in the complaint filed by the far-right party against RTP for “discriminatory journalistic treatment during the election period”, since the public television did not attend or broadcast the presentation of the group's lead candidate for the European elections, Joana Amaral Dias, on April 18.

The announcement was made this Friday by the party itself, which pointed out that, according to the CNE, RTP's conduct “does not correspond to the spirit of the constitutional norms, suggesting a differentiated treatment of the candidacies without constitutional basis”.

“The ADN party fights and does not accept the discrimination that is made against all parties without parliamentary representation, so, in the absence of the public television station, with the aggravating factor that it is subsidized with taxpayers' money, in the presentation of our lead candidate to the European Parliament, we filed a complaint with the CNE against RTP, regarding discriminatory journalistic treatment during the election period”, reads the note sent to the newsrooms.

The party led by Bruno Fialho said it had questioned the CNE as to why the state television had given “journalistic coverage to the candidacies of the Chega party and the Livre party in the European elections, having later done the same for the Iniciativa Liberal and the PAN, since all these parties also do not have parliamentary representation in the European Parliament, and did not give it to the ADN party”.

“As stated in the CNE's deliberation, ‘journalistic criteria cannot, therefore, contradict the legal provisions that specify the aforementioned constitutional principles and, to be enforceable against the candidacies, cannot be secret and discretionary’, a reason that justifies our request for an urgent meeting sent yesterday to the three news directors of RTP, SIC and TVI, in order to stop the discrimination that they intend to do to the ADN party in the electoral debates”, the group pointed out.

The ADN also stressed that, “if common sense does not prevail”, it will file “a precautionary injunction so that the law is complied with”, next week.

In its view, this deliberation supports the thesis that “there are no legal or objective reasons for [...] Joana Amaral Dias to be prevented from participating in the debates in which other parties that also do not have European parliamentary representation are present, namely Chega, Iniciativa Liberal, Livre and PAN”.

“We reiterate that it is an unquestionable fact that the ADN party has gained enormous relevance among the Portuguese people that cannot be ignored and that, together with the notoriety of our candidate, our inclusion in the television debates on television can help ensure that they are fair, informative and representative, contributing to a more robust and inclusive democratic process”, it said.

It should be recalled that the ADN, previously known as the Democratic Republican Party (PDR), multiplied its 2022 result by ten, having collected more than 100,000 votes in the legislative elections of March 10.

Many voters reported having confused the symbols of the Democratic Alliance (AD) and the ADN, which led both parties to file complaints with the National Elections Commission (CNE) due to the similarity of the names on the ballots.

It should also be noted that Joana Amaral Dias was a deputy for the Left Bloc between 2002 and 2005, a party from which she distanced herself after being criticized for having supported Mário Soares in the presidential elections. She left the group in 2014, the year in which she participated in the meeting of the Juntos Podemos movement, where the possibility of the movement joining the Livre party was admitted. That year, she joined the Agir political group, which ran in the 2015 legislative elections in coalition with the PTP and the MAS. Two years later, she ran for the Lisbon City Council for Nós, Cidadãos!.

More recently, Fernando Loureiro, founder of the United Party of Retirees and Pensioners (PURP), now (A)TUA, accused her of "treason", after her candidacy for the ADN in the European elections was announced. He alleges that the party was transformed, with the promise that the psychologist and former deputy would represent the political force in the June elections, which did not happen.

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