In a nation long dominated by the Left, a new conservative political party, Nova Direita (Portuguese for ‘New Right’) is trying to seize the moment. The movement is led by Ossanda Liber, an Angolan-born lawyer who has become a rising star for the weakened and fractured Portuguese Right.
Liber, 46, is a fresh face in politics, although she is not without experience. Her first taste of front-of-the-line politicking was in 2021, when she ran for mayor of Lisbon. During the campaign, she made a name for herself in a much-discussed interview with state-owned broadcaster RTP, in which the journalist bluntly told her that he believed “Portugal to be a systemically racist country.” “Do you think so? I do not,” answered Liber, in what became a major moment for anti-‘woke’ politics in the country. Liber then proceeded in 2022 to run for parliament as part of Aliança, a small right-of-centre party. With the European parliamentary election drawing near, she is now launching her own force.
Nova Direita is striving to revolutionise the ideological vision of the Portuguese Right. Three right-of-centre political parties currently sit in Portugal’s parliament, the Assembleia da República. The old Social Democrats—who, in Portugal, could be better described as liberal-conservative—and the new market liberal Iniciativa Liberal are both strongly pro-EU and ambivalent on ‘woke’ politics. The right-wing Chega, a member of the European-wide, Le Pen- and Salvini-led Identity and Democracy (ID) group, remains ideologically undefined, with many of its members originating from establishment forces such as the Social Democrats. Unlike many of its ID partners, for instance, Chega has embraced a strongly Atlanticist, pro-NATO, anti-Russia and anti-China stance. Chega is also ambiguous on European integration and, though critical of Brussels, has refrained from demanding the repatriation of political powers or exiting key integration programs.
These are some of the areas where Liber’s new platform seems bent on breaking the status quo. Unlike its competitors, ND demands the “firm defense of national sovereignty in the face of international organisations.” It also favours a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine crisis and opposes Portuguese—and European—support for the continuation of hostilities. Like French President Emmanuel Macron, the party seeks greater European “strategic autonomy,” and supports “equidistance” rather than “automatic alignment” with the United States on China and Taiwan. The party stresses the importance of developing relations with non-Western and non-European countries, in particular those of the Portuguese-speaking world. All in all, it seems inspired by the foreign policy of Alberto Franco Nogueira, Portuguese foreign minister between 1961 and 1968 and a strong proponent of a ‘multipolar’ strategy for Lisbon.
Nova Direita has now collected the necessary 7,500 signatures of supporting citizens and applied for legalisation as a political party with the Portuguese Constitutional Court. The process is likely to be completed by September this year.
