Portugal far-right party becomes second biggest in parliament

Time of India

2 days ago

Hard-right populist party Chega leader Andre Ventura (AP)
LISBON: Portugal's far-right Chega party won second place in snap elections last week, according to final results published Wednesday, making it the official opposition party in the country just six years after its creation.
Chega, which means "Enough", and the left-wing Socialist Party (PS) had been level on 58 seats after the provisional results from the May 18 poll.
But the far-right party won two of the previously unannounced four overseas constituencies, taking its tally to 60.
The centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) claimed the other two overseas seats, taking its total to 91, still far from the 116 seats needed to form a majority government.
The Social Democratic Party of outgoing prime minister Luis Montenegro is the main party of the alliance.
"It is a big victory," said Chega founder and leader Andre Ventura, claiming that it "marks a profound change in the Portuguese political system".
Montenegro is expected to try to form a minority government after the latest election and he has said he will not deal with Chega. But Ventura called on Montenegro to "break" with the Socialists.
"Portugal is moving in line with the European trend" for a "protest vote" and "anti-establishment sentiment", said Paula Espirito Santo at Lisbon University's Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences.
'Divine mission'
Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by Ventura, a former trainee priest who later became a television football commentator.
It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament, the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal's legislature since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship.
Chega became the third-largest force in parliament in the next general election in 2022 and quadrupled its parliamentary seats last year to 50, cementing its place in Portugal's political landscape and mirroring gains by similar parties across Europe.
Chega's policies include chemical castration for paedophiles, limiting newcomers' access to welfare benefits, and stricter controls on migration, which it links to crime and higher pensions.
Ventura attended US President Donald Trump's inauguration in January and has embraced the support of Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
He speaks of restoring respect for the police and has protested on the streets with Movement Zero, a group of disgruntled police officers with suspected extremist ties who are demanding better pay and conditions.
"In politics, you have to be different. And I wanted to be different," Ventura once said of himself, before adding that his path had been guided by a "divine mission".
'Fundamental shift'
When preliminary election results came in last week, Ventura said he was confident his party would eventually finish ahead of the PS.
"Nothing will ever be the same again," Ventura told his supporters, who chanted "Portugal is ours and it always will be".
"This is indeed a fundamental shift," said analyst Espirito Santo.
"We cannot say that Chega will lose ground in the coming years... It looks as though Chega is here to stay for a while."
Many voters "certainly support the radical and anti-establishment solutions that Chega proposes" but others may have chosen the party "because of the erosion of the traditional parties' ability to meet expectations", she said.
The future of the Socialist Party meanwhile remains "unpredictable", Espirito Santo said.
Party leader Pedro Nuno Santos, a 48-year-old economist, said he would stand down after the initial election results were announced.
Under a previous PS government, Portugal became one of Europe's most open countries for immigrants. Between 2017 and 2024, the number of foreigners living in Portugal quadrupled, reaching about 15 percent of the total population.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is to hold new talks with the leaders of the three main parties on Thursday and could name a new prime minister during the day.