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Within the 12 months that marks the fiftieth anniversary of their democratic rebellion, the Portuguese elected 50 members of parliament for Chega, a far-right social gathering that attracts on nostalgia for the Salazar dictatorship. This coincidence between the half-century of the Carnation Revolution and Chega’s half-hundred MPs is symbolic however inevitably invitations interpretation.
Above all, the scenario definitively dispels the parable of Portuguese exceptionalism, this notion that Portugal is by some means proof against the far-right ascendancy that we see in Europe and the broader world. It seems that it was solely a matter of time – the phenomenon was sure to reach in Portugal too, finally.
In 2019, the 12 months Chega was based, it bought only one MP elected – André Ventura, its long-time chief and a former chief of the centre-right Social Democratic Social gathering (PSD). Within the 2022 parliamentary elections, its elevated tally rose to 12. And on 10 March, once more in early elections, Chega greater than quadrupled its parliamentary seats. Chega’s flirtation with the previous dictatorship took form at a celebration congress on the finish of 2021, simply earlier than the penultimate legislative elections, when Ventura revived the Salazarist dictatoriship (1933-1974) motto “God, Homeland and Household” to declare: “We’re the social gathering of God, Homeland, Household… and Labour”.
The upcoming EU Parliament election thus takes place solely three months after a normal election, and so the Portuguese are preoccupied with questions of governance and coalition-building. The strengthened Chega is now Portugal’s third political power, behind the 2 largest events, the PSD and the centre-left PS, which every have 78 out of a complete of 230 within the Meeting of the Republic.
‘That is the period of national-populism, and it has arrived in Portugal with these parliamentary elections’ – Teresa Nogueira Pinto, professor of politics and worldwide relations
Nevertheless, this time the PSD ran in coalition with the conservative Social Democratic Centre (CDS), which bought two MPs elected, and the Monarchist Individuals’s Social gathering (PPM). Collectively, this Democratic Alliance returned 80 MPs and scraped 54,000 extra votes than the PS, the narrowest win in Portuguese democratic historical past. PSD chief LuÃs Montenegro was appointed prime minister by the Portuguese president, whereas PS secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos promptly accepted defeat and took over as chief of the opposition.
Luis Montenegro will subsequently head a minority authorities. A right-wing majority would solely be potential with Chega, however the PSD president promised duri…
