Rita Maria Cid Matias (born 17 October 1998) is a Portuguese political scientist and politician. In the

2022 Portuguese legislative election Early legislative elections were held on 30 January 2022 in Portugal to elect members of the Assembly of the Republic to the 15th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic were up for election. ...

, she was elected as a deputy in the

Assembly of the Republic of Portugal The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament ...

representing the

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

Chega party. She was the only woman out of 12 members of Chega elected in the 2022 Portuguese legislative election, becoming in that year the first female member of the parliament in the history of the party.

Early life

Rita Maria Cid Matias was born on 17 October 1998 in Setúbal, Portugal. She is the daughter of Manuel Matias, former president of the

Citizenship and Christian Democracy The Citizenship and Christian Democracy ( pt, Cidadania e Democracia Cristã, PPV/CDC) was a Portuguese minor right-wing political party, with an ideological foundation of anti-abortion, conservatism and the Christian right. PPV was approved b ...

Party (PPV), which merged with Chega in 2019. Her grandmother is an ethnic Indian from Goa. Her father has served as a parliamentary advisor to

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a right-wing Portuguese politician and former sports pundit. He briefly worked as a senior civil servant at the Portuguese tax office. He founded the Chega party in April 2019, and was ele ...

, leader of Chega. Rita Matias was awarded an undergraduate degree in political science from

ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa is a Portuguese public tertiary education institution. It is located in the city centre of Lisbon, in Cidade Universitária, adjoining the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) and Institute of Geograp ...

and subsequently enrolled in a master's degree in political science and international relations at

NOVA University Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon ( pt, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capit ...

. Her thesis was on Chega's integration into the European right.

Political views

Matias is a practising Catholic who opposes abortion and considers herself a defender of the traditional family. She has called herself an anti-feminist, believing that feminism ignores the "complementarity that can exist between men and women". At the 4th congress of Chega, she said that Portugal is "gagged and imprisoned" by "Marxist webs", crushed by the weight of the State, with a new generation addicted to a "cancel culture" that makes "white males and heterosexuals as oppressors".

Political career

Rita Matias started her political activity as a member of the People's Youth (''Juventude Popular''), an organ of the CDS – People's Party, a conservative,

Christian democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

party. Through her father, she came into contact with Chega, but initially considered it too populist. Changing her views, she joined the party and at its second congress, at the age of 22, was invited to join its seven-person leadership board by the party's leader

. She took on responsibility for Chega's social networking. In 2021, Matias was a candidate in the municipal elections in

Alcochete Alcochete () is a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,569, in an area of 128.36 km². The municipality is composed of three parishes and is located in Setúbal District. Alcochete is known for its bullfighting tradition ...

, to the east of the capital,

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, but was not elected. Matias has described her political inspiration as coming from the right-wing female politicians, Giorgia Meloni in Italy and

Rocío Monasterio Rocío Monasterio San Martín (born 1974) is a Spanish–Cuban architect, businesswoman and National conservatism, national-conservative politician. The leader of the Madrid branch of the Spanish political party Vox (political party), Vox, she ...

in Spain. She leads Chega's youth group, called ''Juventude Chega''. The first attempt to develop this failed as a result of entryism by Neo National Socialism groups. Matias was Chega's spokesperson on youth matters in the

, when she was elected to the National Assembly to represent the

constituency. She was third on the Chega list of candidates for Lisbon, and the party won four seats in that constituency and 12 overall, making it the third largest party. In her first speech to the Assembly, she focused on issues concerning young people and the cost of student housing in Lisbon. In parliament, she was appointed to the committee on energy and the environment.

Controversy

On 16 June 2024, at a press conference prior to a match in the UEFA Euro 2024 football (soccer) championship, the French footballer

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is renowned for his dribb ...

, who has Cameroonian and Algerian parents, encouraged young people in France to vote in the

2024 French legislative election An early Legislative elections in France, legislative election was held in France on 30 June 2024, with a second round to be held on 7 July, to choose all 577 Deputy (France), members of the 17th National Assembly (France), National Assembly ...

in order to combat extremism, saying "I want to be proud to represent France; I don’t want to represent a country that doesn’t correspond to my values, or our values." Playing in France's first match of the tournament, Mbappé broke his nose. Matias responded to this by writing on X (formerly Twitter) "France for the French" and by suggesting that Mbappé had put his nose where it did not belong.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matias, Rita 1998 births 21st-century Portuguese politicians 21st-century Portuguese women politicians Chega politicians Female critics of feminism ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon alumni Living people Members of the 15th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) NOVA University Lisbon alumni People from Setúbal Portuguese Roman Catholics Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)