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Legislative elections in Portugal: with André Ventura, the extreme right returns to the forefront of the political scene
This Sunday, the spotlight will be on the far-right Chega party, Portugal's third political force, and the role it could play in the country's legislative elections.
At its head, André Ventura, former seminarian and deputy since 2019. A figure of discontent and anti-corruption, the populist leader promises a “
cleanse
” and embodies the face of the rise of the Portuguese ultra-right.
Andre Ventura, leader of the right-wing populist Chega ("Enough") party, delivers a speech during a debate in the Portuguese Parliament before the state budget vote, in Lisbon, Wednesday, October 27, 2021. AP - Armando France
By: Caroline Renaux Follow
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“
We are extremists against corruption!
» Thus spoke the Portuguese far-right leader André Ventura last Wednesday, in the middle of a lunch rally in Beja, a city in the south of
Portugal
.
Reacting to accusations of radicalism made by his opponent, Luís Montenegro, president of the center-right PSD party, he claimed to be fighting “
for a decent country
” and against “
corruption which has destroyed the foundations of the country
”.
Propelled as the third political force in the country, his party, Chega (“That’s enough” in French), could reach 20% of the vote during the early legislative elections scheduled for this Sunday, March 10.
In total, in less than five years of existence, it could double or even triple its number of deputies, which stands at twelve since the previous elections of 2022.
At the head of this meteoric rise is André Ventura, carefully combed brown hair, face of the populist radical right in Portugal.
This 41-year-old man, a former seminarian who became a law professor, tax inspector, sports commentator and then criminal news reporter, is today at the origin of an earthquake whose first tremors were felt in the fall of 2019 , when he became the first far-right MP to enter Parliament since the fall of the Salazar dictatorship in 1974.
Read alsoPortugal: one week before the legislative elections, the vote promises to be complicated
A “
hunger for attention
”
A shock all the more exhilarating for the leader of Chega, who constantly seeks to provoke indignation, whether on television sets or during his speeches.
It was in Loures, a suburb in the north of Lisbon, that he first made headlines, accusing the gypsy community in 2017 of being "
addicted
" to social assistance or of considering themselves "
above the law
".
Since then, the former PSD activist has multiplied the controversies, as in 2020 by suggesting the return to his country of the deputy Joacine Katar Moreira, born in Guinea-Bissau, or last Thursday, by promising, in the event of victory in the legislative elections , to prevent Lula's entry into Portugal on April 25, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.
“
What characterizes him most is his thirst for attention
,” summarizes Ana Navarro Pedro, Portuguese journalist for the weekly
Visão.
If CHEGA comes as eleições, Lula da Silva will be unable to enter Portugal.
Corruptos não são bem-vindos!
#CHEGA pic.twitter.com/aEPFwoRWw9
— Partido CHEGA 🇵🇹 (@PartidoCHEGA) March 7, 2024
Since February 25, the
launch day of the campaign for the Portuguese legislative elections
, André Ventura has been rolling out his nationalist and conservative program: fight against corruption and poverty, regulation of immigration and increased repression against delinquents and criminals.
On his campaign poster, where he appears smiling above politicians, considered corrupt and crossed out with a red cross, he summarizes it in one sentence: “
Portugal needs a clean-up.
»
An almost providential mission in the eyes of the man who once thought of pursuing a career as a priest, and for which he skimped on nothing, even abortion, going so far as to advocate the removal of the ovaries to women who resorted to it.
André Ventura also speaks out in favor of the castration of pedophiles, or the end of subsidies to associations fighting against domestic violence.
In a country where the unemployment rate has jumped by 23% in one year, where
the Prime Minister has been swept up in a corruption scandal
and where housing prices are soaring to the benefit of tourism, his proposals to “
end the parallel economy
” hit the mark.
“
André Ventura never ceases to highlight the
'good Portuguese'
, of whom he would be the incarnation, that is to say people who work and do not depend on subsidies or state aid.
It’s a speech that touched some of the abstainers or dissatisfied voters
,” analyzes Victor Pereira, professor of history at the University of Lisbon.
Close to other populist figures
Admirer of
Javier Milei
, dubbed by
Marine Le Pen
and
Jair Bolsonaro
, the anti-system candidate embodies, according to Ana Navarro Pedro, this “
populist, big-mouthed and middle-class offer
” hitherto absent from the polls.
“
It was a successful bet on his part to see that part of the Portuguese electorate was missing this path and that he could represent it
,” maintains the Portuguese journalist.
Enough to confirm the political opportunism of the leader of Chega, who is twisting the neck of everything he defended in his past.
“
In his law thesis, he criticized populism, the stigmatization of ethnic minorities, was very concerned about the expansion of police powers… When we look at his political career, we see that he is someone without real conviction
” , says the expert.
Read alsoPortugal: Marine Le Pen goes to Lisbon for a meeting alongside populist André Ventura
In the last legislative elections, André Ventura campaigned under the Salazarist slogan “God, homeland, family and work”, which he will abandon for the 2021 presidential election, where he obtained 11.9% of the votes cast.
Less than two months before the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, the military coup that brought democracy to the country, the place of the candidate and his party at the top of the polls marks the return of the extreme right in a country which seemed immune to it, long described as an “exception” in Europe.
“
Perhaps
among certain voters, especially the youngest, the memory of the dictatorship is fading or is poorly understood
,” supposes Victor Pereira.
While he falls behind the center-right candidate of the Democratic Alliance (AD), Luís Montenegro, as well as the socialist Pedro Nuno Santos in the polls, the Chega leader could still gain ground.
“
The risk is that the AD, the center-right coalition, will not be able to have an absolute majority, even with the help of a liberal right party.
To form a government and have stability in the Assembly, the traditional right would therefore have to ally with the extreme right
,” the expert is alarmed.
For the moment, Luís Montenegro rejects any possibility of agreement with the party: “
I will never conclude a political governance agreement with Chega
,” he insisted in September 2023.
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