Surge in support for Portugal’s hard Right as Socialists ousted
PORTUGAL faces instability if Chega, a hard-right party that surged to third in the country’s general election, is denied a role in government, its leader warned yesterday.
Andre Ventura, a tough-talking former football pundit turned populist, issued the warning after the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won Sunday’s snap vote by a slim margin.
The 41-year-old ex-trainee priest said that the results proved that Portuguese voters wanted a conservative coalition after ousting the Socialist government, which has led the country since 2015.
“Today is the day that marks the end of bipartisanship in Portugal,” he said as he called for the Right-wing alliance after Chega tripled its MPS to 48 following an anti-immigration and corruption campaign.
With 99.1 per cent of the vote counted, the AD had won 79 seats in the 230-seat parliament. Voter turnout was 66.23 per cent, the highest in nearly three decades.
The AD is preparing to govern without an outright majority, rather than enter coalition with Chega, which calls for the chemical castration of paedophiles.
“It would be so wicked to break commitments that I have made so clearly,” AD leader Luis Montenegro said in his victory speech.
He said he expected to be invited to form a government before Mar 15 and that he hoped the Socialists and Chega would not ally to block it from power.
The socialists conceded defeat after winning 76 seats in an election called after Antonio Costa, the centre-left prime minister, resigned in a corruption scandal.
Chega voters had said that hey wanted changes in housing, education, healthcare and justice in western Europe’s poorest country. HardRight parties are expected to make gains in June’s European Parliament elections.
Chega’s allies in Europe congratulated Mr Ventura. Geert Wilders, the winner of last year’s Dutch election, Spain’s hard-right Vox and Italy’s Lega all hailed the result.
Mr Ventura, a fervent Catholic born in working class Lisbon, studied to be a priest but quit after falling in love. He claims to be guided by a “divine mission” and predicts Chega will win the next general election.
He founded Chega in 2019, winning a seat in that year’s election. It was the first time the hard-right had a MP since the 1974 coup that toppled the decades-long Right-wing dictatorship.
In 2022, Chega won 7.2 per cent, returning 12 MPS, before cementing its place in Portugal’s politics with 18 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s election.
Mr Ventura was a law professor and tax inspector before finding fame as a pundit known for his support of Benfica, Portugal’s most decorated and supported club.