Marine Le Pen in Portugal to support her ally presidential candidate
A campaign poster by populist candidate André Ventura for the European elections, May 20, 2019. Horacio Villalobos - Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images
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3 min
Marine Le Pen is in Portugal this Friday afternoon.
Two weeks before the presidential election, the president of the National Rally (RN) comes to support the right-wing populist candidate André Ventura.
At the head of the anti-system Chega party, this thirty-something hopes to confirm his breakthrough in the legislative elections.
A new ally for Marine Le Pen in a country where the radical right no longer had its place since the fall of the dictatorship.
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But what will Marine Le Pen do in the midst of a health crisis in Portugal?
For three days, the president of the RN will show her support for André Ventura, leader of the anti-system Chega party (“That's enough!” In Portuguese).
At 37, this right-wing populist, former sports commentator has no chance of winning the January 24 presidential election, but he could confirm his breakthrough in the 2020 legislative elections.
“
It is a compatible and promising party.
We who have been alone for a long time want to help,
”pleads MEP Philippe Olivier.
And Europe, it will be discussed this weekend,
Portugal having assumed the presidency of the union
on January 1.
"
A new ally is always good to take
", explains the connoisseur of radical rights Jean-Yves Camus.
If the RN and Chega are two nationalist parties, which plead in particular for better border control, they do not have only points in common, on abortion or education for example.
“
What interests us is the relationship with Europe,
” insists RN spokesperson Sébastien Chenu.
So by appearing alongside a man from the center-right, Marine Le Pen sends a political message a year and a half before the presidential election and continues to build an international stature.
► See also: Portugal: presidential election against a backdrop of economic crisis
André Ventura, a young political wolf
With our correspondent in Lisbon,
Marie-Line Darcy
André Ventura
likes to cultivate his appearance as a young political wolf.
Man is a skilled communicator.
His past as a football commentator on a popular television channel propelled him to the fore.
And Ventura has acquired an exceptional ease there.
Doctor of public law from the University of Cork in Ireland, he is a university professor in Lisbon.
From 2015, he entered politics, first within the PSD, the Social Democratic Party, the parliamentary right, then as the leader of the Chega party he founded and of which he became the sole representative. in the Portuguese Parliament in 2019.
Seen initially as an opportunist plunging into a political vacuum relative to the right of the right, Ventura has toughened its tone in recent months.
His virulent remarks against the gypsy community, his demonstrations alongside extremists, where the
ok
sign
of white supremacists and the Nazi salute are not lacking, leaves little doubt about his political connections.
A time close to Salvini, the Italian leader today in retreat, he now turns to Marine Le Pen who gives him all his support.
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