'Nothing will be same again,' says Portuguese far-right leader after election success

MADRID

Portuguese far-right Chega party leader Andre Ventura hailed his party’s election success on Wednesday after Chega became the country’s main opposition party for the first time.

“Nothing will be the same again, the Portuguese will get their country back!” Ventura posted on X.

Chega overtook the Socialist Party for second place after the overseas votes were counted from the May 18 general election, the country’s Interior Ministry announced.

A former television football commentator, Ventura founded Chega in 2019 and has grown the party from holding a single seat in parliament to now 60.

Portugal’s political scene has been marked by instability, with three general elections since 2022. Each time, Chega has gained strength, particularly winning votes from typically left-wing areas.

With the final count putting the Socialists two seats behind Chega, the result marks the end of the two-party dominance that has shaped Portuguese politics since the country’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

“We fought together, we won together. Now we are more, and we have more strength,” Ventura wrote on X.

Positioning his party as the alternative to the government, Ventura said Chega represents “the voice of change.”

Despite Chega’s upset over the Socialists, it still remains in second place overall.

Incumbent Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) came in first with 91 seats – short of the 116 needed for a majority – but is expected to govern with the abstention of the Socialist Party, as was the case after Montenegro won last year’s election.