With the far-right party Chega rising rapidly in the Portuguese general election, the far-right storm in European politics is intensifying. There is an analysis that he emerged with the support of public opinion disappointed with established politics, like former US President Donald Trump, an ‘outsider’ who is seeking to regain power in the US presidential election in November.
According to the British Guardian on the 11th, as a result of the vote count in Portugal’s general election held the previous day, the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which consists of two small conservative parties, secured 29.5% and emerged as the first party. In second place was the ruling Socialist Party, narrowly falling behind by 0.8 percentage points with 28.7%. The Socialist Party has independently secured a majority of seats in the early general elections in 2022 after taking power in 2015, so this result is evaluated as shocking.
AD has difficulty securing the majority (115 seats out of total seats) required to form a government, so it must form a coalition government with other parties. Of the total 230 seats, 4 will be decided after counting the votes of overseas voters.
In this election, Chega garnered 18% and came in third place, drawing attention for its rapid rise. This is three times higher than the 7.2% obtained in the 2022 early general election. Chega secured 1 seat in the 2019 general election when it was founded and 12 seats in the 2022 general election, and is expected to secure 48 seats this time, which is four times more than the last general election. Foreign media analyzed that a far-right party had never emerged in Portugal like this.
Chega was founded by Andre Ventura, who was once a member of the PSD but left the party. He boasts a brilliant career, including as a lawyer, university professor, and soccer commentator. He is evaluated as having made good use of young people’s anti-immigration sentiment and anti-government sentiment caused by high inflation and housing shortage on social media.
During the election process, Tsega expressed his will to change the established politics, saying, “I will clean up Portugal and end corruption.” French daily Le Monde commented, “Representative Ventura has used the method that led to the success of far-right populist movements in many European countries,” and added, “He is showing diverse positions based on various ideologies such as anti-elitism and anti-pluralism.”
This vote was triggered by Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s resignation in November of last year amid suspicions that there had been illegal activities during the government’s large-scale green investment project. AD leader Luis Montenegro, who won this general election, is distancing himself from Chega, feeling burdened by far-right policies. However, the Guardian predicted that there is a high possibility that there will be significant pressure to reach an agreement with Chega due to the difficulty of forming a coalition government.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.