Multiple corruption scandals fuel support for populist Chega party led by André Ventura
Portugal’s two-week general election campaign has officially begun with centre-right and centre-left parties leading in the polls, but a far-right populist forecast to collect almost a fifth of the vote is a further sign of Europe’s nativist drift.
Recent polls show almost 20% of votes to this far right party, which is very scary to me. Roughly one fifth of parliament members would subscribe to this platform. By the way, they aren’t focusing on this topic as much recently but when they rose to power their platform focused essentially on “solving” the gypsy problem in Portugal.
Last Friday there as a debate between all major parties and to my surprise, it went very well for this guy. He is usually very disrespectful during debates, constantly interrupting others, and is also prone to saying bullshit and his opponent wiping the floor with him. But on Friday the representatives of the two biggest political parties, the ruling party (PS, the socialist party) and especially the main opposition (PSD, or SPD in the linked article, the social democratic party) made fools of themselves and all Ventura (far right) had to do was stay quiet and interject at key points. It makes sense since both parties are wrapped up in controversy right now. I still disagreed with his message but I foresee people him getting many votes from those who were uncertain about whether they’d vote for him or for the social democratic party.
Also, not mentioned in the article, last Tuesday there was a debate between parties without parliamentary seats and it was shocking how many far right parties are popping up (there were always some far left parties). With some saying things like “the carnation revolution (where Portugal overthrew its dictatorship) was the biggest treason in the history for this country”…
Just to clarify, the one that said that is actually one of the oldest far right parties in the country, not one of those that just popped up.
