“The receipt of a complaint related to the referenced matter is confirmed. It gave rise to an inquiry at the DIAP in Lisbon, which aims to collect the elements and determine the circumstances, in fact and in law, on the matter”, said an official source of the PGR, in response to Lusa.

At issue is the disclosure of alleged news by André Ventura on his page on X (formerly Twitter), through images that have graphics similar to those on the websites of Rádio Renascença and the newspaper Público.

Last week, sources from the Renascença group and the newspaper Público told Lusa that they had been the target of false news spread by André Ventura on social networks and the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) indicated that it had received a report on this topic.

Questioned on the subject at a press conference, the president of Chega defended that the party acted “within the law” in relation to the accusation of disclosing misinformation on its social networks, rejecting that any “unlawful act” had been committed.

“We are absolutely aware that we acted within the law and that we have the law on our side. We will await the ERC's decision on this matter with complete tranquillity”, he defended, reiterating: “We will wait for the ERC to make a decision, when the ERC makes a decision we will be here to comment on it. At this moment, what our lawyers tell us is that we are perfectly safeguarded within the law, Chega has not carried out any illicit act”.

Ventura rejected that they were fake news, indicating that “they were from Folha Nacional”, the newspaper created by the party and made by employees and leaders of Chega. The leader of Chega maintained that this publication “now has three graphics, with three sections”, despite the fact that the Folha Nacional website does not contain graphics similar to the one published by André Ventura and in the party’s social networks.

Some of the images published by Ventura are signed by “redação”, while on the website of the party newspaper, they usually have the indication “Folha Nacional” in the signature, and none of these publications have an associated link to the original article.