In the face of the general rise of nationalist and popular right-wing movements and parties in Europe, there were some who were conspicuously left behind. One of these was the Portuguese Chega party, which, in the legislative elections on March 10, had achieved great success by winning around 1.2 million votes and 50 seats in Parliament.
In this election for the European Parliament, André Ventura’s Chega party lost around 800,000 votes in absolute terms and fell from 18.1% to 9.8% of the vote. Most Portuguese analysts attribute this defeat and its extent to the poor choice of list leader for the European elections: the 72-year-old retired diplomat, António Tânger Corrêa.
Considering that any candidate from this political area has to face the permanent hostility of journalists and commentators, in addition to all his rivals, perhaps the choice wasn’t the best one. Unlike Chega leader André Ventura, who is an exceptional challenger capable of facing the hostility and convergence of his opponents, Tânger Corrêa was uncomfortable under the pressure. He also made some terrible statements, like when he said that Jewish employees at the World Trade Centre in New York had heard about the attack on the Towers and avoided being there; or when he claimed that he once challenged Putin to a fight.
On the other hand, there have been cases in which he has given in to what Chega voters call the ‘System.’ One such compromise was considering whether to support former Prime Minister António Costa for a European post, which Ventura hastened expressly to contradict. But it would be exaggerated and even unfair to assign blame for Chega’s defeat solely to the head of the list. For some analysts, following the extraordinary victory on March 10, there was a kind of hubris in the party that had the effect of leading those responsible to read the reasons for the victory in an optimistic and erroneous way.
What is true of Chega is true of other parties in the same political-ideological area: the danger of confusing the populist sentiment of its voters with a guarantee of unconditionality. The reason why many abstentionist voters voted for Chega in March was because they found in André Ventura’s party a nationalist and patriotic alternative not only to the Left, but also to the federalist and pro-European Right of the AD (Democratic Alliance) coalition.
This electorate, partly coming from abstention, is more demanding, looking for a coherent line of thought and action that reflects, in Portugal, the national-conservative and identity values that are gaining popularity and support in Europe. And the truth is that some of Chega’s erratic behaviour in terms of choices, in addition to the clearly unfortunate choice of list leader, may have contributed to their supporters not going to the polls on June 9, or opting for the candidate of the Liberal Initiative, another right-wing party, which is liberal in economics and progressive in values.
Other sections of the electorate may also have been absent, even with the traditionally stronger abstention in the European elections (in 2019, it was around 70%, and this year it was 63.6%). However, the abstention rate in the March 2024 legislative elections, when Chega’s electoral success was strong, was 33.8 %, or just under half of that seen during the European elections. At the time, Chega had a total of 1,169,836 votes or 18.1%. In the European elections, the figures were 386,648 votes or 9.79%. That’s almost 800,000 votes lost, coming as a bucket of cold water to dampen the hopes of a party that had been on the rise until now.
Pedro Arroja, an economist and Chega activist, and the author of its 2022 economic programme, focused his criticism on the party president himself, who chose Tânger Corrêa, someone “practically unknown” to the voters. Arroja criticised Ventura, accusing him of a deliberate policy of “anti-intellectualism and anti-professionalism” in the party’s orientation. He also highlighted the “ideological disorientation,” in economic and social matters, oscillating between capitalist liberalism and Christian solidarism.
According to Arroja, “Chega was born as a conservative party in terms of customs and a liberal party in terms of economics, but now it seems to be a social-democratic party in terms of economics.” Other analysts prefer to emphasise the resilience of Chega, which, with a politically unknown and uncharismatic head of list, and with all the accumulation of errors and faults that have been pointed out, was nevertheless able to hold on to third place and win around 400,000 votes and go from zero MEPs to two.
The Portuguese Right hopes that this failure is understood by Ventura and the leaders of Chega, and that it serves to correct the party. Then, it will be able truly to represent Portuguese nationalism and conservative values, and take advantage of the winds of history that, in Portugal and Europe, are once again blowing to the right.
