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 (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic to the 15th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic. All 230 seats to the Assembly of ...

, she was elected as a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal representing the

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

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 Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

and was raised in

Seixal Seixal () is a Portugal, Portuguese city and municipality, located in the district of Setúbal District, Setúbal, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon region, Lisbon. Its population includes 184,269 inhabitants (2011), in an area of that includes ...

. She is the daughter of Manuel Matias, former president of the

Citizenship and Christian Democracy The Citizenship and Christian Democracy (, 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 by the Constitutional Court on 1 July 2 ...

Party (PPV), which merged with Chega in 2019. Her grandmother is an ethnic Indian from

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. Her father has served as a parliamentary advisor to

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese far-right politician, former sports pundit and trainee priest, and founder of the right-wing populist political party Chega. He acts as the leader of the opposition since Cheg ...

, leader of Chega. Rita Matias was awarded an undergraduate degree in political science from ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon and subsequently enrolled in a master's degree in political science and international relations at

NOVA University Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon (, ), 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 capital city, earning its name as the "N ...

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

Political views

Matias is a practising

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...

" 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 is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

party. Through her father, she came into contact with Chega, but initially considered it too

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

. 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 ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

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

Giorgia Meloni Giorgia Meloni (; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Italy since 2022. She is the first woman to hold the office. A member of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), Chamber of Deputies since 2006, s ...

in Italy and

Rocío Monasterio Rocío Monasterio San Martín (born 4 February 1974) is a Cubans in Spain, Spanish-Cuban architect, businesswoman and politician. She was the leader of the Madrid branch of the far-right Spanish political party Vox (political party), Vox, and s ...

in Spain. She leads Chega's youth group, called ''Juventude Chega''. The first attempt to develop this failed as a result of

entryism Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, infiltration, a French Turn, boring from within, or boring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organiz ...

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 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

football (soccer) championship, the French footballer

Kylian Mbappé Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for club Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid and Captain (association football), captains ...

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

2024 French legislative election Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 (and one day earlier for some voters outside of metropolitan France) to elect all 577 Deputy (France), members of the 17th legislature of th ...

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 Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

) "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 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)