In Lisbon, some of Europe’s far-right leaders gathered in support of Andre Ventura, leader of Portugal’s far-right party Chega, ahead of a snap election in March. The gathering, which took place after the surprising win for Dutch populist Geert Wilders, welcomed members of Europe’s Identity and Democracy alliance, including France’s Marine Le Pen and co-leader of Alternative for Germany Tino Chrupalla.
Wilders managed to book major gains in the Dutch election on an anti-immigration platform, but his hopes of building a coalition hit a hurdle. “In Portugal, as in other European countries, the left has reached the end of its cycle… trust in us (far-right) is growing, in Austria, in Germany, in France, in Portugal,” Le Pen told reporters in Lisbon.
Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa stepped down on Nov. 7 over an investigation into alleged illegalities in his government’s handling of lithium, hydrogen and data centre deals. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called an election for March 10.
Chega stunned the nation when it grabbed 1.3% of the vote in an election in 2019, winning the far-right’s first seat since the end of Portugal’s dictatorship in 1974. It then managed to increase its share to around 7% in the 2022 election, emerging as the third-largest parliamentary force. A survey released on Friday by Intercampus showed support for Chega could now grow to 13.5%.
Rights groups are worried about Chega gaining further support, as they believe he fuels racism and xenophobia. Ventura was fined in 2020 for discriminatory remarks against the Roma people, and also criticises the Black community.
The same Intercampus poll showed Costa’s Socialist Party (PS) with 23.6% of the vote and centre-right opposition Social Democrats (PSD) with 21.9%. Other polls show PSD ahead. According to Friday’s poll, PSD would need Chega’s support to establish a government but party leader Luis Montenegro has so far ruled out any such alliance.
“If (Chega) doesn’t win the election but there is a right-wing parliamentary majority, (I hope) there’s the capacity to create an alternative,” Ventura said.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony, Miguel Pereira and Pedro Nunes, Editing by Marguerita Choy)
